Lincolnshire's Industrial Past

A guide to 12 touts affanged bY

The Society for History and Archaeology

for the Annual Conference of The Association for Industrial Archaeology

Lincoln 2009 Tour notes for the Annual conference of the Association for Industrial Archaeology held in Lincoln, september 2009 t

First published by The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology 2009 O The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology

rsBN 978 0 903582 38 4

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information retrieval system, without permission of the publisher

ACKNOWLEDGEMEI{TS

Editor: Ken Redmore Text: s B and H); ; Ken Hollamby (Tour M)

Illustrations: Anderson & Glenn (Fig. 106); Eric Croft (Figs. 129,130,132); SLHA members

References in the text, e.g. EL7I , are to Lincolnshire's Industrial Heritage - A Guide, edited by Neil Wright, published by SLHA in2004.

Front cover illustration: Foster Windmill. Boston

Printed by Ruddocks of Lincoln A Lincoln 5

B and 9

C Gainsborough 13 D Museum of Lincolnshire Life I7

E and 23

F and 27

G and Boston 31

H Louth, The Wolds and the Marsh 35

J RAF Stations 39

K Spalding and 43

L New Holland and Barton 47

M and The 51

Bibliography 55 TOUR ROUTES

Gains

LI NCO

Spa lding .O Sutton Bridge

B. Dogdyke & Woodhall Spa C. Gainsborough E. Grimsby & lmmingham F. Sleaford & Sntton Bridge G. Boston H. Louth & the Coast J. RAF Sites ...... K. Spalding ' ...... L. BartOn & New HOlland Lincoln

Tour A LINCOLN (Walking Tour)

Maps: Landranger 121; Explorcr 272

Lincoln became a great city in the middle of the nineteenth century and its early works were all in the flat Witham valley running through the centre of the city, later spreading east and west of the original area. Up to this time it was a cathedral city, and for Lincolnshire and its industries were those that might be expected in a large market town - mainly brewing, malting and flour milling. For cornmunication it had the Fossdyke Canal westwards to the tidal Trent at , and the navigable south-eastwards to the port of Boston on . Then in 1842 Nathaniel Clayton and Joseph Shuttleworth started the Stamp End Works next to the Witham east of the city Figure 2: High Bridge, Lincoln centre. Within 20 years other works had been Until the 1970s Brayford was lined with steam founded that grew into the great firms of Fosters, mills and warehouses but those have also gone, Rustons and Robeys, all with worldwide trade in apart from one small building that is now the King agricultural engineering. William IV . The city's first electricity works (1898 tN9) was last to go, with permission for its demolition being given in2009. It is ironic that at least one of the new buildings erected round the site has been designed to look like a Georgian warehouse.

East of Brayford the Witham flows past the eighteenth century Brush Warehouse (LN2) and then under High Bridge (LNI) of cl160 with later extensions in 1235 and 15401501' it was comprehensively restored c1902. It is said to be the second oldest masonry arch bridge in Britain and Figure l: North-east corner of Brayford, c1905 the only bridge in the country that still has a medieval secular building on it. The river This walking tour starts at Brayford Pool (LN7), the underneath was deepened and made navigable in harbour of Roman and later periods at the 1195. Before then porters had carried goods confluence of the Fossdyke Canal (LN11) and the between Brayford and the Witham east of the navigable river Witham. The 1l-mile long bridge. The navigation of the river Witham Fossdyke is thought to date from Roman times and between Lincoln and Boston had deteriorated by was made navigable again by Henry I in II2I. It the eighteenth century and in the 1770s was later deteriorated until restoration in 1,740-45 by improved under a scheme devised by John Grundy, Richard Ellison. At Lincoln there used to be John Smeaton and Langley Edwards with a top several warehouses on the north bank of the canal at Stamp End on the eastern edge of Lincoln. but none of these remain. Lincoln

Siemens. In 2008 Siemens decided to move to another site in the city and the future of the Waterside site is uncertain. Beyond Rustons is the site of Clayton & Shuttleworth's Stamp End Works (LN26). The business was started in 1842 by Nathaniel Clayton and Joseph Shuttleworth and in the nineteenth century was the greatest engineering firm in the city. In fact it was one of the largest engineering firms in the world during the second half of the nineteenth century, with 940 employees by 1862. Figure 3: Doughtyn's Oil Cake Mill, Waterside South, By 1900 they had 3000 employees in Lincoln and 1900. Foster's Wellington Works are on the left. branches in Budaoest and Vienna. Industrial buildings on both banks of the Witham started beyond Thorn Bridge. First on the south bank was Doughty's oil seed crushing mill (LN2Q. Next to the four-storey grey classical building of 1863 is a taller block of 1891, and both were converted to apartments in the 1990s. On the opposite bank low walls around a car park are all that remains of the original Wellington Works where William Foster & Co. started making steam engines in 1856. Because that site was restricted and had no railway access, the firm moved from there in 1899 to the western edge of the city next to Clayton the line to . Figure 5: Edwardian ffice block of & Shuttleworth's Stamp End Works, Waterside South

There was a dock down the middle of the site and, as threshing machines were one of their main products, they established wood works on one side of their site and iron works on the other side. Early in the twentieth century they established their own electricity works on the opposite bank of the river, then built the Titanic works across the railway line from their Stamp End Works (LN29), and during World War I established the Abbey Works and Tower Works further east.

Clayton and Shuttleworth were ruined after the end of the First World War, though they suffered a Figure 4: & Hornsby Works, Waterside South lingering death and did not finally close until about 1929. After 1918 parts of their site were sold off or Beyond Doughty's Oil Mill are the Sheaf Iron rented out to other firms, and some viable sections Works (LN25), the original site of Ruston, Procter were later made separate businesses so they could & Co. formed in 1857 when 22-year-old Joseph survive the demise of the parent company. Many Ruston joined a small existing firm. His skill as an 1860s buildings survived until 2002103 and part of entrepreneur developed the firm, he bought out his the Edwardian offices at the front still remains. more cautious partners and in the twentieth century Both families were millionaires in their time and it became the largest employer in the city. For the 1930s playboy heir spent part of the family some 50 years after 1918 it traded as Ruston & money on what has become the Shuttleworth Hornsby and since then has gone through a number Collection at Old Warden in Buckinshamshire. of metamorphoses as Ruston Gas Turbines, European Gas Turbines, Alsthom and, from 2003, Lincoln

Figure 6: Stamp End Lock Figure 8: Pelham Road Bridge In front of the works is the top lock on the Witham navigation (Stamp End Lock LN2n which was These works were established by Robert Robey in built further upstream in 1770 and rebuilt here in 1854 and most of the buildings were erected in 1826 following the extension of Sincil Dyke. The 1882. The products included traction engines, top gates were replaced by a guillotine in 1950 but steam wagons and colliery winding gear. Robeys at the east end the lock still has unusual curved moved out in 1988 but many of the large buildings gates. remain, in other uses.

Figure 7: Stamp End Railway Bridge Figure 9: Lincoln Central Station To the east the Witham is crossed by a ruilway bridge (LN2B) of 1847148. It was designed by Sir John Fowler for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln had two railway stations from 1848 until Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and may be the 1985. The Great Northern Railway station, now oldest extant example of a Fairbairn wrought iron called Central Station (LN4), is a Tudor-style box girder bridge. Beyond the bridge is Clayton & building designed by John Henry Taylor for the Shuttleworth's Titanic Works (1912 LN29) which GNR's from , was occupied from 1928 to 1989 by Clayton via Boston, which opened on 17 October 1848. On Dewandre Ltd. Opposite the Titanic Works was a 9 April 1849 the line was extended to Gains- lifting bridge, now fixed, that included railway lines borough and later gave the GNR a link back to their for wagons to go to the firm's electricity works on main line opened in 1852, hence the name 'loop the north bank. line'. On the High Street adjoining the station are the remains of the stables (now converted to shops) Retuming to Melville Street, from Pelham Bridge of the former Great Northem Hotel which stood on (LN22), opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 27 June the other side of the road. 1958, can be seen the remains of Robey's Perseverance Works (LN21), now occupied by a builders' merchant's oremises. Lincoln

In the late nineteenth century engineering firms spread to land on both sides of the river Witham on the western edge of Lincoln, upstream of Brayford Pool, but much evidence of industry in that area has now gone. That includes the site of Foster's new Wellington Works where the first British tanks were designed and made during the First World War. The site of those premises is now a park, with Currys on the approximate site of Fosters. Further west were the buildings occupied by Ruston-Bucyrus who continued the tradition of producing excavators that had been pioneered by Rustons in 1874. Figure 10: former Lincoln St Marks Station entrance

The first railway in the whole of Lincolnshire was the Midland Railway branch from Nottingham to Lincoln. The fagade of their station, latterly called St Marks (LN6), is now part of a shopping precinct. As described by Pevsner, it is 'grey brick, symmetrical, Grecian, the centre with giant Ionic portico and fluted columns, the side pavilions with giant Doric pilasters'. It opened as a terminus on 3 August 1846 and on 18 December i848 became a through station when the MS&LR made an end-on junction from the east. St Mark's station closed in 1985 and lines were diverted into Central Station. The interesting octagonal single storey crossing Figure 12: Railway Goods Depot, now Universirl- gate wheelhouse, built when the MS&LR arrived, Library remains as a fast food outlet on the east side of High Street at this point. The first developments west of the river Witham had been sidings and other facilities for various railway companies, and they came to dominate the area known as the Holmes. This is now the site of the and two railway buildings have been adapted for University use. The Great Central Goods Depot (tN8) was built in 1908 next to the upper Witham with a loading bay alongside for river craft (filled-in in early 1970s). It was sold to a builders' merchant in 1,961 and in 200314, after several years of disuse, was converted into the University L1brary. North of that was the Great Northern Railway's Engine Shed opened in March 1875 to replace a shed on the Central Station site. It was used until October 1964 when its surviving steam engines Figure 11: Crossing gate wheelhouse, High Street were transferred to Retford Shed. Uses after that included storage of the steam break-down crane, and it continued as a locomen's booking on and off point until some time after 1918. Eventually the tracks were taken up and the building deteriorated until the University converted it for Student Union use - once more called the Ensine Shed - in 2006. Dogdyke & Woodhall Spa

Tour B DOGDYKE & WOODHALL SPA

Maps: Landranger l22;Explorer 261 & 273

The route leaves Lincoln by Hill and The tour passes through the village of Branston, a passes a toll house built in f843 @N20), marking community that boasted its own gas works, opened improvements to this road by the Turnpike Trust. in the 1850s to supply Branston Hall and later Close by the steam engine builder Robert Robey extended to serve parts of the village. There was established his 'Perseverance lronworks' in 1854 also a local water supply via a pump driven by a (LN2r). large cast iron water wheel. This still survives and was built in 1879 by Charles Louis Hett of .

Three miles on is the village of and the farm of Nocton Rise, once home of Edward Howard, a founder of the Lincolnshire Farmers Union in 1904. which became the National Farmers Union in 1908. Nocton was also the centre of the 7,000-acre estate of William Dennis & Sons, established in 1918, mainly growing potatoes and sugar beet.

Figure l3: Entrance to Robey's ffices, Canwick Road

In the same year the Royal Agricultural Society of held its annual show on fields just behind the toll house. Two years later some of this ground was used by the city to establish its municipal cemetery. In the 1860s Canwick Hill leading out of the city was used to test early experimental traction engines then being developed in Lincoln. Canwick Hall, close by the hill, was the home of Colonel Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorpe, the eccentric Tory MP for Lincoln, (1783-1855) whose opposition to the railways constrained the development of the rail system through Lincoln. Figure l4: Nocton Mill The top of Canwick Hill was the site of a windmill, but behind the current buildings the outline of St This large estate was served by an extensive narrow John's Hospital at Bracebridge can be seen. This gauge railway network built in 1926 and surviving large complex of buildings was opened in 1852 as until the 1960s, when it was owned by Smith's the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum (NKl). It is an Potato Crisps Company, which had acquired the imposing stone structure in the Palladium and land in 1936. The many branch lines spread out Italianate styles, and the l25ft water tower, built of over the flat Witham fenland fields to the east of mass concrete, dates from 1925 (NK2, see p.27). the village, with horses and internal combustion engines providing the motive power. One branch Dogdyke & Woodhall Spa went westwards from the village across the main road (protected by large standard railway gates) and was connected to the Lincoln to Sleaford railway line via a transhipment platform. The large mass- concrete 5-storey mill at Nocton Station, built in 1926. still survives NKn.

Figure l6: North elevation, Dogdyke

Access to Dogdyke Pumping Station (EL73) isby a farm track to the right a few hundred yards over the bridge. This steam pu ing station was built in 1856 to drain over 3,000 acres of land alongside the . The 16hp beam engine drives a scoop wheel, built by Bradley and Craven of Wakefield, who are better known for their brick-makins machinery and are still in operation.

Figure 15 : Metheingham Mill, one of many former brick-built tower mills in Lincolnshire

The large brick tower windmill at was constructed in 1867 and carried 6 patent sails. It was never very profitable but it lasted until 1930s, then operating on only 3 sails. Metheringham railway station, on the eastern edge of the village, is on the line from Lincoln to March, built as a joint undertaking by the Great Northern and Great Eastern Railways in 1882 and still operating for passengers. From this station a private carriage road led to the now demolished Figure 17: Ruston & Hornsby diesel engine, Dogdyke Hal1, once the seat of Sir Henry Chaplin Pumping Station (1841.-1923) who was chairman of the GNR. The passes through remains of tour then the This steam engine is now the only fenland beam- Metheringham airfield, which has its own visitors' type drainage engine still operating under steam. It centre. It operated as an important bomber base was replaced in 1940 by a 40hp Ruston and from 1943 to 1946 and was one of the few airfields Hornsby single-cylinder diesel engine which to operate the FIDO fog dispersal system. (see powers a Gwynne centrifugal pump moving 40 tons p.41). of water per minute. This engine has itself been At the large village of the Fenland replaced by electric pu s in a separate location proper is entered and the route crosses over the but the Ruston engine is still retained by the Third Billinghay Skirth, a drainage channel which is Witham Drainage Board as a standby pump. These navigable to the river Witham. The main .4153 engines are maintained and run regularly by the follows the Sleaford to Turnpike road volunteers of the Preservation Trust. and crosses over the Witham on a bridge constructed by the turnpike trust in 1855 (8L74).

l0 Dogdyke & Woodhall Spa

Figure l8: Boiler, Dogdyke Pumping Station Figure 20: Fifteenth century brick keep, TattershaLl CastLe,

Tattershall Castle, now owned by the National Trust, dates from the mid-fifteenth century and is an outstanding example of early brickwork, with being made in kilns on Moor, five miles to the north. The town's importance has greatly diminished, yet it once boasted its own gasworks, steam brewery and a canal linking it to the Witham, opened in 1786, and later extended to in about 1802.

On the edge of Woodhall Spa is the RAF station which was in operation from 1942Io 1964 and used by the 'Dambusters' squadron; a plane from this Figure l9: Gwynne centrifugal pump, Dogdyke Pumping station dropped the first 22,0001b '' Station bomb on Germany in 1944. (see p.42).

Close by the pumping station is the settlement of Chapel Hill with a riverside inn and warehouse complex. This was also once the site of Shuttleworth's boat building yards. (Joseph Shuttleworth, the boat builder, was the father of Joseph who, together with steam packet captain Nathaniel Clayton, founded the Lincoln frrm of Clayton and Shuttleworth.) Adjacent to the pumping engine site is RAF which was opened in 1940 and now operates the Euro Fighter as well as being the home of the Memorial Flight (see p.42).

Tattershall is reached after passing over the site of the Great Northern Railways loop line opened in 1848 from Lincoln to Boston. Before the direct Figure 21: 617 Squadron memoriaL, Woodhall Spa, route through was opened in 1852 this was the main line to the north from Kings Cross, with Boston being the main works, before it was moved to .

ll Dogdyke & Woodhall Spa

Woodhall became a spa resort after a mining project of the 1820s failed; the water issuing from the trial pit shaft was found to be high in minerals. The spa began in 1838 and the present buildings date from between 1890 and 1910. Its main popularity came with the opening of the railway in 1855, Woodhall being on the to Horn- castle branch of the GNR.

Figure 23: Wool warehouse, Bridge Street, Homcastle

Horncastle was once the location for one of the world's largest horse fairs, which filled all the town's main streets, with horses arriving across Europe. Established in the thirteenth century, the fair reached its zenith in the mid-1800s when it was atftacting huge numbers of people, and in consequence there were almost 50 inns in operation. The fair declined after 1890 and hnally ceased in 1948. Figure 22: Kimema in the Woods, Woodhall Spa

The spa closed in the 1970s but the twin-cylindered Robey steam winding engine along with the water barrel used for lifting the water from the old pit shaft can be seen at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. Next to the spa buildings is the 'Kinema in the Woods', originally built as a sports pavilion in the 1880s. In 1922 it was converted to a cinema boasting a highly unusual back projection screen and rows of deck-chairs at the front for patrons. In 1994 it was remodelled and extended to create a two-screen theatre.

The Horncastle road out of Woodhall Spa follows the route taken by the railway (closed in I97l), and Figure 24: Updraught brick kiln, the Horncastle-Tattershall canal is also close by as Horncastle is approached. The railway terminus in On the return journey to Lincoln the tour passes the Horncastle has been largely demolished but a three- Baumber brick kiln, now on the corner of a storey brick warehouse on the station site, built in privately owned caravan and fishing park. This 1855, still survives and now converted to flats. arched updraught kiln (similar to the Scotch kiln) was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century and Also surviving in Horncastle are a number of the survives complete with abutting firing sheds, all early nineteenth century canal warehouses, some of sympathetically restored in 1986. This is an which can be seen from the town relief road. The example of a type once common in the county and houses of the merchants who once owned them also rarely found elsewhere. survive, fronting onto the West Street and Bridge Street and leading towards the Market Place, as also does a frne wool warehouse of 1864.

l2 Gainsborough

Tour C GAINSBOROUGH

Maps: Landranger ll2: Explorer 280

Which town in England could lay claim to being were important. By 1816 plaster, nails, cast iron in the sea port furthest away from the sea? various forms, ale, cheese, oats, salt, earthenware, Gainsborough is over 60 miles from the mouth of shot and flour were the main cargoes. the via the twists and turns of the River In 1840 the town gained separate status as a port Trent. It was also the home of Marshalls, the and ships no longer had to clear customs at Hull. engineering works that produced boilers, steam This led to the major import of linseed and rape engines and agricultural machinery that were seed and the building of mills to process them. By exported worldwide and employed up to 5000 local 1850 stone, timber and lime for railway people at its peak. And not only that but the town construction became a significant import but once also has an oilfield w\th 29 wells, one of the early built the new railways took much of the trade and onshore sites in the UK and the first place on earth between 1848 and 1854 it declined by ovet 70Vo. where deviated drilling, as opposed to a simple In 1882 the town was described as 'among those vertical well. was carried out. river ports which have been much injured by the The final years of the twentieth century were not railway'. kind to the town. The port had been little used for The early twentieth century saw improvements to several years until the last ship called in the mid the river, including dredging and new locks to take 1990s. Marshalls went the way of many of larger boats. The growth of road traffic, however, Britain's traditional engineering companies and caused a change to trade being concentrated on closed in the mid 1980s. The town was in decline, grain and timber and principally dedicated to one of a decline that has been arrested by regeneration, the particular mills or wharves in the town. especially along the Riverside and at Marshall's Works.

The Port of Gainsborough

The earliest reference to Gainsborough as a port was in 1298 and it was recorded as such throughout medieval times. By the early eighteenth century it was handling boats of up to 80 tons burden. But trade upriver from Gainsborough was restricted because of the twists and turns of the river, several shallows and the lack of a hauling path.

The potential strategic location of the town was realised as the development of the waterway network grew. Improvements, principally by , began in the 1770s and continued from 1783 to 1794, eventually giving a depth of Figure 25: A ship loading grainfor export at FurLey's four feet up to Nottingham. Gainsborough became Wharf inthe 1970s. an interchange between the inland waterways and By the early 1980s there was a major initiative by the sea-going ships. Trade was principally around the local authorities to promote the port, boats eastern seaboard of the British Isles and with northern Europe and the Baltic. In these early days it provided an outlet for coal to rival that from Newcastle, and lead, iron and timber

t3 Gainsboroush which could penetrate far inland on continental Gainsborough at 09.00 and was back at 19.00. The rivers could trade up to the town. The changes to 112 mile round trip was completed in 10 hours, the nature of the industry and the concentration on including stops at all the ferry points on the way. larger ships brought the end to the port and the 1826 packets provide initiative came to nothins. In five steam took it in turn to a daily service to Hull and the Robin Hood went to Newark and Nottingham on Tuesdays and Fridays, returning on Monday and Thursday. In 1830 a service to was provided, taking a day and a half for the journey.

It was the development of the railways that killed off these services but a market day boat linking the town with its riverside villases to the north lasted until 1915.

Figure 26: Whitton's Mill (WU3), built in 1936, seen here in the mid 1970s with empty barges alongside. The inboard vessel is a grain barge with the other for carrying oil. The latter trade has since ceased, the boats delivering oil from to a depot at Colwick on the outskirts of Nottingham. The Mill has since been converted to flats.

Shipbuilding and Packets

The shipping activity and access to timber and iron Figure 27: The Lord's Staithwas the departure pointfor led to a flourishing shipbuilding industry. The the river packets, seen here about 1900. Registers record a boatwright in 1645 and subsequent entries record sailmakers, ships Marshalls and Britannia Works carpenters, blockmakers and ropemakers so ship William Marshall purchased a small iron works in repairs if not building were taking place in the Gainsborough in 1848. He produced threshing eighteenth century. machines as well as machinery for the local oil and The first reference to a shipyard was in 1733. This flour mills. Their new works, the site of Marshall's was Smiths, at the west end of Lord Street. In Yard today, was established in 1856, a site White's Directory of 1826 there are three shipyards carefully chosen alongside the Manchester, recorded, one on the Nottinghamshire bank of the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Over the next River. These yards built sloops and brigs, seagoing fifty years the works expanded southwards and also vessels of 700 to 1200 tonsl Humber keels: and provided a site for workers' houses. By 1904 the ketches, the latter flat bottomed and horse hauled works covered some 28 acres and employed 3,600 boats for use upriver to Nottingham.(see p.50) people.

By the mid-nineteenth century iron, steam-driven The site was a sloping one, dropping from the paddle steamers were built to meet the growing railway towards the town. Excavation provided a need for packet boats on the river. In 1815, only flat surface for the buildings and also provided the three years after the PS Comet was launched on the clay to make the bricks for the construction work. Clyde, Moody's Yard launched the John Bull and The fact that the railway came in at the higher level Smith's the British Queen, and the latter also a tug, was exploited so that heavy i orts travelled the Maria. downhill.

Sailing packets ran from Gainsborough to Hull in three to five days. The steamboats reduced this to five hours and in 1822 the British Oueen left I4 Gainsborough

new and larger store incorporating parking at the SONS, AND CO., MARSHALL, ground floor level. To the north of this is the f37 dnginrwa, Wliilhrig[tr, nrr] Slnr[inirtr, million office, retail and leisure development, now cr-I}.l(frrEDl ,', known as Marshall's Yard (W142). This opened at BOII,ER MArTBS, IB,ON & BBA$S FOIIND.ffBS,: Easter 2007 and retains some of the original IBON WOB&S, buildings. The car park entrance on the north side the GAI ll sB0 R0 lJ G l|, Llllc0 ulsll I RE is bridsed with an overhead crane from works' XATlllIACfl'aEA OF PrLro Eortsble 8ts86 Englmst Fircd Steoo Erglneq Sgnl-Fhgal Etolm Eogtnoq Oorblnod Fintohbg ltmshtDg ffsc'hh6 Flrod gsrl Portrblo oora edsdbg [Ut' Flrat ald Port8blo Olr0Elrr 8ew B€oolrq Iort r Xllls, 8t r,D PoDp6, Ao., !q

Figure 29: In the later stages of the First World War the Marshalls' works produced tonks at the rate of ten per week. These tanks were unarmed but armoured and [, 8OIVS, & C tuh.tu !!BdlDl|dtr designed to transport essential supplies to the front line. fbqfr@t otAtrt6ldo ln One remnant of the works survives in industrial use. Buildings at the south end provide a home for Wefco who manufacture storage and underground Figure 28: Marshalls' advert, 1863 tanks, and pressure vessels, as well as steel Among the better known products were portable fabrication. traction engines and threshing machines as engines, Trent Bridge well as road rollers and, in the later years, tractors. Wartime production included tanks and aircraft in The fine three-span ashlar stone bridge (WIAD was the First World War and midget submarines in the built in 1790 to replace a ferry. The use of the ferry Second, the latter an interesting link with the could be hazardous and in 1760 a crowded boat town's earlier shipbuilding yards. Aircraft were not sank with the loss of six lives. The design was by built at the Britannia Works site but at a new, William Weston and this was his last work in purpose built Belfast Truss factory on the south England before emigration to the USA where he edge of the town. became well known as a canal engineer. The original stone balustrades were replaced by railings to the works was provided from the firm's Power when the cantilevered footpaths were added in own power station, sited alongside the , 1964. to the south of the Trent Bridge. This was built in 1918 and was closed in 1955. Built as a toll bridge, the tolls were removed in 1932. The pair of toll houses at the east end are The 1970s and 80s saw a dramatic run down of the each actually two storeys in height and, with a now works, never arrested by several changes of blocked linking them through the abutment, ownership, including British Leyland in 1975. The provided a house for the collector. site was closed in 1985 and unemployment and dereliction was the . The downturn has been arrested, however, by the regeneration of the works' The southern half is now the site of the, almost inevitable, 's store, soon to be replaced by a

15 Gainsboroush

Some Other Industries, Yesterday and Today

William Rose was a Gainsborough barber who, as a young man, had been a riveter's apprentice in a Gainsborough shipyard. He also sold tobacco and patented a machine, jointly with Henry Wills of Bristol, to pack tobacco, in 1885. With the principle established he could adapt it to pack other products and he soon built afactory on the banks of the River Trent. Amongst other things his machines packed seaside rock and sliced and packed bread. The Cadburys Roses chocolates we eat today are so called because they were originally Figure 30: Celebrations on 3l March 1932 when the packed on machines made tolls on Gainsborough Bridge were abolished. Both in Gainsborough. storeys ofthe toll house on the right hand side can be clearly seen.

The Gainsborough Oilfield

Lincolnshire currently is the home of the second largest on shore oilfield in the UK, at Welton, near Lincoln. Oil production in Britain first began in north Nottinghamshire during the Second World War. In 1959 the Gainsborough/Beckingham field went into production and today has some 29 wells in production. The Gainsborough facility also manages production from eight other smaller fields, all in Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire. The oil is Figure 32: Rose Brothers tobacco packing machine taken to the Conoco refinery at Immingham. From 1898 cars were produced and by 1908 thirty- eight Rose National cars had been sold. However, at this time a decision was made to concentrate on sweet wrapping machinery and production ceased.

Expanding into armaments in the late 1930s the firm built aircraft gun turrets for the RAF. Post war they specialised in naval gun mountings and missile launchers. The factory closed in 1987.

The large white building to the south west of the town is the seven storey Kerry's Mill, a flour mill built for Spillers in 1958-62 (W149). This was the highest point on the river served by sea going ships. At least two were built specially for the traffic with Figure 31 : Oil wells near Gainsborough Central Station very low superstructures to enable them to pass under Trent This industry makes little visual impact on the Bridge. locality because the wells are individually small Other firms in the town today include Eminox, and scattered through the landscape. One the of producing stainless steel exhaust systems, and two sites is within the town, on east the side of the of the largest manufacturers of jokes and novelties Central railway station (W141). was It from here in the UK, Pams of Gainsborough and Smiffys, the that the first deviated wells were drilled to enable latter also the sole wigmaker left in the UK. exploitation from underneath the town.

t6 Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Tour D MUSEUM OF LINCOLNSHIRE LIFE ANd ELLIS'S MILL

Domesfic Wlng

I gE ,P E ut

+To Elltds Milf Commercial Row

Figure 33: MUSEUM P/qN

post Gpmm7lgtal_Egr-: I stone mason, 2 ironmonger, 3 basket maker, 4 print shop, 5 Co-op store, 6 ffice, 7 draper, 8 chemist. Domestic Wins: A blacksmith, B stable, C saddler's shop, D wash house, E parlour, F kitchen, G bedroom, H nursery)

The Museum of Lincolnshire Life occupies the The site continued in military use until the mid- former barracks of the Militia 1960s, with its final use being as base for a Royal and is the county museum of industrial and social Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Territorial history. The Museum site comprises the old motor transport section. barracks around a parade yard, together with one In 1969 the building was taken over by the unit of -grade housing, Elm House, on the Lincolnshire Association, a body formed to south western corner of the site, which is now used promote art and heritage in the county, which used as administrative offices for the Museum' A further part as its headquarters and started to create a component of the original site, no longer in military County Museum in the rest. At f,rrst the Museum or museum use but originally occupied by the only occupied the gatehouse and courtyard area, but standing regimental band, is the row of terraced it subsequently expanded along the single-storey houses to the west of the site in Mill Road. The wings which border the north and south sides of the owned and maintained by Lincolnshire Museum, former parade ground. Then the Agricultural County Council, also manages the restored Ellis's Gallery was built on part of the courtyard, enabling Mill on the other side of Mill Road. due recognition to be given to the role of The main brick building of the Museum, dating agriculture in Lincolnshire, and also the from 1857, was designed by Lincoln architect engineering heritage of the great Lincolnshire Henry Goddard and built as part of the then companies which grew from the needs of Government's policy to create local counter asriculture. measures in response to perceived national and international tensions.

T7 Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Courtyard Exhibits

Figure 34: Ru.ston, Proctor & Co, steam shoyel Figure 36: Ruston Bucyrus lTRB excavator

The full revolving steam shovel was pioneered by The 17RB is a generic example of the industry Ruston, Proctor & Co. of Lincoln, the forerunners standard 17lf9l22RB range of which over 20,000 of Ruston Bucyrus. This early example was were made at Lincoln. It operated from 1938 in a rescued and rebuilt after spending over thirty years local brickworks until a factory rebuild and was completely submerged in a chalk pit, handed over to the museum in the 1970s. Work is and is now awaitins fuither restoration. on hand with a cab restoration and this machine is also worked regularly.

Figure 35: Ruston Bucyrus No.4

The small excavator, with oil engine unit, in the Figure 37: Hornsby forge shop chinme1s south-east corner of the courtyard was the very first machine delivered by the new Ruston-Bucyrus Co. The pair of decorated chi eys were rescued from of Lincoln in 1930. At the end of its working life it the site of the Forge Shop at Richard Hornsby & was purchased and part restored as a Sons' Spittlegate works in Grantham. More at Ruston Bucyrus, and then restored to working Hornsby products on display include the ploughs. order and handed over to the Museum in the 1970s. The Lincolnshire plough and agricultural It still operates and is in course of a full cab rebuild. implement makers Hornsby, Cooke of Lincoln, Coultas of Grantham and Blackstone of Stamford enjoyed a national and international reputation.

l8 Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Agricultural Gallery

Figure 38: A pair of ploughs by Fenton of Sleaford

Other smaller implement makers, such as Fenton and Townsend of Sleaford, Edlington of Figure 40: Ruston shunter Locomotive Gainsborough and Fletchers of Winterton, were 88DS, known and respected throughout the county. The oil engine shunter, a Ruston & Hornsby worked all its life at a Lincoln factory, and is representative of a machine which, when introduced, speeded the demise from the 1940s onwards of hundreds of steam works tank engines.

Figure 39: Cast-iron station convenience

The finely decorated gentlemen's convenience came from Woodhall Junction station on the GNR Figure 4l: Ruston nanow-gauge locomotive Lincoln-Boston railway. (It is no longer in service!) There are only two known antecedents, The nanow-gauge Ruston locomotive was one alongside HMS Great Britain in Bristol, and introduced in the 1930s. Rustons were again world awarded one still in use under Sydney Harbour Bridge. innovators and in the later 1930s were Buxton Certification No.1 for the frrst fully flameproof mines loco in the world.

l9 Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Figure 42: Ruston, Proctor & Co. oil engine locomotive Figure 44: WorldWar I tank, William Foster & Co.

The large narow-gauge locomotive is an almost One of the highlights of the museum is the tank direct copy of a pre-WWI German Doilz concept, designed and made by William Foster & Co. of and perversely some of these locos then proved Lincoln. The example on display is the first truly essential to the war effort by enabling the safe successful version of the tank - the Mark4 female introduction of mechanised haulage into highly (one front and two side machine guns, as distinct dangerous environments, in this case at H.M. from the male with one front machine gun and two Cordite Factory, Holton Heath, Dorset. side mounted 6pdr naval guns).

Some other steam exhibits comprise the classic low pressure portable engine (Ruston, Proctor & Co.) and a twin cylinder non-compound winding engine (regularly demonstrated) that was used for eighty years to raise the spa water at Woodhall Spa.

Figure 43: Hornsby-Akroyd patent oil engine

Highly significant, and vastly under-rated, is the Hornsby-Ackroyd compression-ignition heavy oil engine. Hornsbys of Grantham were actually manufacturing and selling large numbers of heavy- oil engines to this basic design whilst in Germany Figure 45: Fowler steam ploughing engine Diesel's engines were still at the experimental 'John', a Fowler of Leeds ploughing stage, a fact regrettably now overlooked by the engine, is one pair world outside Lincolnshire. Diesel's name came to of a that worked all their life in the Lincolnshire pair, be given to these engines due to the skills of . The other half of the American advertising industry. 'Michael', awaiting repair, is also owned by the Museum, together with a full set of ploughing tackle. Also awaiting repair is the Museum's flagship engine, the Ruston Proctor 6HP traction engine, 'Sylvie'.

20 Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Figure 46: Aveling & Barford DX road roller Figure 48: 'Harriet', Marshall 1898 portable engine

The Museum holds an interesting group of inter- Also in the Museum collection is a good war rollers with internal combustion engines: a representation of the agricultural products of small Ruston & Hornsby with single cylinder Lister Marshall, Sons & Co. Ltd. of Gainsborough, oil engine, a Robey & Co. Ltd. prototype with JAP including the 1898 Steam Portable, 'Harriet', with petrol engine, and the more substantial 6 ton threshing machines of the same period. Aveling & Barford Ltd (of Grantham) DX, Other Marshall exhibits include the most famous of equipped with the enclosed crankcase pressure the Marshall tractors, the single cylinder Series 3 lubricated version of Ruston's indestructible slow Field Marshall with trailed combine, and an unused speed horizontal oil engine, the HR. factory prototype four wheel drive unit purchase new from the works disposal sale.

Figure 47: Road Marshall oil engine roller Figure 49: Clayton & Suttleworth crawler tractor

Examples of the Ruston HR are also in the Museum In spite of their pioneering work on the internal collection, as well as the very rare surviving combustion (I.C.) heavy oil engine, Hornsbys had example of a total opposite, Ruston's last small lost most of their export markets during WWI, and engine design, the WB. Initially designed as a a merger of necessity with Ruston, Proctor & Co. of "use it and throw it away" unit, running at Lincoln of 1918 formed Ruston & Homsby Ltd, 3000rpm, made in all light alloy, and almost unique who continued to pioneer development of the as an application of the side-valve configuration to LC.engine. In the Museum collection is an an oil engine, it proved to be a total disaster and example of the Ruston & Homsby TE Industrial was soon deleted from the product range due to Gas Turbine, a prime mover which Rustons poor running performance and bad starting. Hence introduced to the world in the 1950s to apply Sir survlvors are very rare. 's jet engine to industrial uses.

2l Museum of Lincolnshire Life

The Agricultural Gallery also includes a wide range of Lincolnshire-made wagons and farm machinery.

The Vehicle Gallery, behind the Agriculture Gallery, features horse-drawn vehicles made for transport, leisure and urban trade. There also locally made bicycles and early motorcycles.

The first-floor galleries in the entrance block are devoted to the social history of the county and changing local interest exhibitions.

Figure 52: Chemist's shop, Commercial Row

Commercial Row, on the south side of the museum complex, has finely fitted chemist's shop, grocers and a printer's businesses.

ELLIS'S MILL

Figure 50: Vehicle GalLery^

The Domestic Wing is on the north side of the quadrangle and includes a fully furnished kitchen, parlour and bedroom of a typical Victorian Lincolnshire cottage. There is also a saddlery and a blacksmith's shop.

Figure 53: Ellis's Mill

Ellis's Mill (LN34) in Mill Road, behind the museum, was built in 1798 and is the last survivor of the seven windmills shown on mid-nineteenth century maps occupying this stretch of hill top. Because of its elevated position this mill only needed to be three stories high. It is a brick tower Figure 5l: Kitchen, Domestic Wing mill with four sails and was restored from a burnt out shell in 1917181, as Lincoln Civic Trust's The recently redeveloped Museum of the celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Two of Lincolnshire Regiment tells the story of the the four sails are currently being repaired. (It is Regiment from early days though to the wars of the open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the twentieth century. It is located between the summer.) Domestic Wing and the Vehicle Gallery

22 Grimsby

Tour E GRIMSBY & IMMINGHAM

Maps: Landrangerl 13, Explorer 284

Figure 54: GRIMSBY DOCKS in 1930 (from OS map I :10,560) 1; Fish Dock l,{o.l: 2: Fish Dock No.2; 3: Fish Dock No 3 (1%a); 4: Royal Dock; 5: Alexandra Dock; 6: DockTowe

ZJ Grimsby

Grimsby Docks

There is limited public access to the Docks (NE2- NE13) Grimsby had been a busy port in the Middle Ages but trade declined as the harbour silted up and by 1800 it was essentially a small market town with some sea-going traffic. Fishing was non-existent. The town was one mile inland at the head of a silted up haven. In 1800 a newly formed Grimsby Haven Company atte ted to revive the port by building a lock where the Haven entered the River Humber and dredging out part of the enclosed water. A new town was laid out but the revival was short-lived because Grimsby lacked good inland communications and had no Figure 56: Trawlers in the Fish Dock, early 1900s local trade for export. The real revival of the port of Great Grimsby started with the opening of the From 1850 fishermen from southern England were railways in 1848 and 1849. starting to exploit new fishing grounds in the and they started to land their catches in Grimsby and send the fish to London on the GNR. Soon the fishermen settled in the town. In 1801 the population was 1,524 and by 1861 it had risen to I 1,067. At first the fishing boats used the Royal Dock, but in 1855-57 the MSLR built a separate Fish Dock for them. That was enlarged in 1866, and No. 2 Fish Dock was built in 1876-77, which itself was enlarged in 1897-1900. Fish Dock No. 3 was opened in 1934. The fish market was originally on a floating pontoon, and even after the market moved to dry land it was still called the Pontoon. By 1880 there were 625 fishing boats in Grimsby, which caught 45,000 tons, a third of all the fish landed in England, and by 1910 landings Figure 55: ALexandra Dock, Grimsby, c1900 were 180,000 tons. The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway made Grimsby the eastern end of the line. There was also a branch of the Great Northern Railway that connected Grimsby to London. The MSLR absorbed the Grimsby Haven Company and built a major dock on 138 acres of reclaimed mudflats east of the haven outfall. The new dock opened on 27 May 1852 and when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited on 14 October 1854 they consented to it being called Royal Dock. It contained fifteen acres of deep water with a further five acres of shallow timber pond.

The railway company had envisaged that Grimsby would grow into a busy commercial port, but it was competing with the older port of Kingston- Figure 57: Victoria Flour Mills, Grimsby, 2004 upon-Hull on the north bank of the River Humber. It was fish, not comnerce, which was to be the main concern of Grimsby docks.

24 Grimsby

Fish was preserved by packing in ice. The ice Immingham Docks factory, built for the Great Grimsby Ice Company Immingham can trace its history back to the Ltd., was built alongside the Fish Docks in 1900- medieval period. At the census of 1801 it had a 01 and extended in 1907-08. It was closed in 1990 population of only 144. In 1901 it was still only and the building is currently under threat of 230, but by 1911 the population had soared to demolition. 2,68I and has continued a steady climb since then. Today fish arrives in containers from Norway and The reason was the construction of the new dock. Iceland, overland from other UK ports and from At the beginning of the twentieth century there was the local fleet. The modern market handles some a need either to expand Grimsby docks or develop 30,000 tonnes of fresh fish a year. Grimsby is the a new port to cope with the growth in traffic on the maior centre for frozen food in the UK. east coast and the increasing size of vessels. Parliamentary approval was given in 1901 to expand Grimsby but further studies highlighted Grimsby's limitations and, in his report, Sir John Wolfe Barry identified Immingham, with its deep water approach on the River Humber, as the site for the new dock. The Humber Commercial Railway and Dock Act was passed in 1904. Construction work started in 1906 and the new dock was opened on 22 Jrrly l9I2 by King George V. The 45 acre dock basin was the centre of a thousand-acre estate with the total development costing f2,600,000. The development was underwritten by the . The Act provided for the GCR to lease the docks for 999 years. The scheme included 170 miles of Figure 58: Corporation Bridge, Grimsby, 2004 sidings and dock railways and three light railways The Royal Dock was the first dock in the world to connecting the docks to Grimsby, New Holland make extensive use of hydraulic power to operate and the main line. In 1909 work began on an lock gates and cranes. The red brick tower was electric tramway which ran parallel to the Grimsby designed by J.W. Wild and modelled on the District Light Railway. This tramway running campanile of the Palazzo Publico in Sienna. It is from Corporation Bridge in Grimsby to 303 feet (92.4m) high and was built in 1851 Immingham opened on 15 May 1912. It was used between the two locks at the seaward end of Royal by 2,000 passengers daily until it wore out and was Dock. The tower is listed Grade I. Its function closed in the face of local opposition on I July was replaced in 1892 by a 78 feet (23.7m) 196r. hydraulic tower which in turn was made redundant in 1980 by the installation of an electrically driven oil-hydraulic system.

Grimsby is a market-leading vehicle-handling port and until the recent downturn was handling almost 400,000 vehicles a year through its ro-ro facility at Alexandra Dock for Volkswagen, Audi, Toyota, Seat and Skoda. There are also facilities for handling a wide range of forest products and a state-of-the-art timber treatment facility. Other buk products handled include agri-bulks, grain, cement, ores and minerals. General cargoes Figure 59: Immingham Dock, commemorative post include non-ferrous metals. iron and steel. card, 1912

25 Grimsby

Immingham is the busiest feny port of the east coast and new investments updating and renewing Immingham is the largest handling port in the facilities have been made regularly. In the late dry bulk the . Cargoes including coal, 1960s a new jetty was built into the Humber at the ilmenite, petroleum coke, titanium slag, ferrous eastern entrance to the dock estate to handle alloys, pig iron pyrites imports and exports of crude oil and finished and are handled at the in- products by pipeline to or from Lindsey Oil dock and deep water facilities. Refinery and Humber Refinery. The terminal is Improvements in 2000 resulted in the bulk operated by Humber Oil Terminals Trustee Ltd. discharge capacity being raised to 700 tonnes per There are over 240 bulk storage tanks for liquid hour. Further investments in 2002 enabled over fuels making Immingham home to the UK's 100 trainloads of power-generator coal to be largest independently owned petrochemical storage shipped each week. The Immingham Bulk facility. Terminal is leased to Corus and handles iron ore and coal for its Scunthorpe works (see p.53). Roll-on - roll-off traffic is a major business at the port although there are no longer any passenger The under-cover bulk storage capacity for services operating. The most recent investment agricultural and similar products was recently was 2006 when in Associated British Ports. who doubled with an investment of f2.75m and a own Immingham dock, invested f27 .5m rn a 2lha, further f5.6m is being invested in the Immingham three- berth ro-ro facilities outside the lock gate on bulk park complex. Container traffic is handled the River Humber. Inside the dock are two four- through the ABP Exxtor terminal which has berth ro-ro terminals. recently been equipped with two rubber-tyred gantry yard stacking cranes.

The Lindsey and Humber Oil refineries were opened in the late 1960s and have been continuously developed since. Lindsey Oil Refinery imports its crude oil through Immingham Dock's Eastern Jetty while Humber Refinery uses the offshore mooring buoy and associated tank farm at . Refined products are exported by rail, road, sea and pipeline. Humber Refinery is the only refinery producing petroleum coke in the UK.

Figure 60: SS Dewsbury at the bunkering (coal) facilitl on the western jetty, Immingham Dock, l9l0

Figure 61: Lindsey Oil Refinery, aerial view from south-west

26 Sleaford & Sutton Bridge

Tour F SLEAFORD & SUTTON BRIDGE

Maps: Landranger 130 & 131; Explorer2T2 &249

Figure 62: South elevation of the Bass Maltings, Sleaford

Leaving Lincoln via Melville Street the entrance to Lunatic Asylum, is seen close by on the left. A few Siemens (formerly Ruston's Iron Works LN25) can miles along the A15 are the remains of Dunston be seen on the left and then, after crossing Pelham Pillar (Nr(8, see p.43), built in l75l as a land Bridge (opened 1958, LN22), the shell of Robey's lighthouse and reduced to its present height in Perseverance Iron Works (LN21) is passed. 1940. From 1810 there was a Coade stone statue of Rustons and Robeys were both founded in the George III on the top of the pillar and parts of this 1850s. After passing the City Cemetery on the left are stored in Lincoln. The road into Sleaford goes there is a turnpike toll house (LN20) of 1843 next to close by the fine stone entrance building (1839) of the traffic lights. The turnpike road ascended the former Sleaford Gas Works (NK25), and a little Canwick Hill to reach Lincoln Heath which beyond it on the right the restored Cogglesford extended nearly all the way to Sleaford, about 15 Watermill kl77I, NK2O. miles away.

Figure 64 : Co g glesford watermill, Sleafo rd Figure 63: St John's Hospital water tower, The Mill Stream from Sleaford to the river Witham at Chapel Hill was made into the Slea Navigation Bracebridge Heath Water Tower (1924-25, NK2), (opened 1794 and closed 1881) and has been which served what was originally the County restored to navigation for some of its length

21 Sleaford & Sutton Bridge downstream from the east. The Navigation Yard The Maltings (NK34) at Sleaford are the largest (NK2D next to Sleaford Market Place includes a complex of maltings in the country outside Burton warehouse of 1794 converted to offices, a 1930s on Trent, with a total frontage of almost 1000 feet. seed warehouse converted in 2003 to the Hub Craft This nationally important site is presently the Centre and the fine little weighing office of 1838/9. subject of major efforts to preserve and re-use them. The eight blocks, plus a central block of engine house and workshops, were built by Bass, Ratcliffe and Gretton of Burton on Trent in 1899- 1905 to the design of H A Couchman. They closed in 1960 and have had various uses since then. The site includes a row of staff cottages on the access road and the Carre Arms Hotel on the main road. When built the maltings were highly automated and very advanced, with bridges, elevators and conveyor belts to connect all parts of the complex. Three blocks were badly damaged by fire in 1916 but their walls still stand to full height. Current proposals for the site include restoration of some fire damaged buildings and clearance of some Figure 65: weighing ffice buildings behind the impressive south elevation. There was no so a canal loop (NK28) The route from Sleaford takes the A15 south to was built on the opposite bank so that vessels could , the A52 to Swineshead and the A17 to turn; part has been filled in but some of it can still Sutton Bridge. On the way the navigable South Foot be seen. Nearby is Money's windmill @.f794 Forty Drain is crossed at Bridge End. The NK29). Between the Hub and Sleaford Maltings, Al5 and A52 follow old turnpike roads but in the the Picturedrome cinema (1920, closed 2002 NK31\ last thirty years or so the A17 has been converted to is passed on the left and there is a distant view of a series ofbypasses. Sleaford railway station (1857, NK32) on the right. East of what is now called Sutton Bridge the estuary of the used to be nearly two miles wide and had to be forded with the help of a guide. The estuary was known as Cross Keys Wash, and the boundary between Norfolk and Lincolnshire ran down the middle. In the 1830s a l% m1le embankmenf (5H24) was built across the estuary and the river was confrned to a narrower channel next to the west bank. The land behind the embankment was reclaimed for agriculture, following a centuries old tradition around the Wash.

A turnpike road was built along the top of the embankment and Cross Keys Bridge (5H20) was built across the new channel of the river Nene. The bridge was opened in 1830 but the road along the embankment was not opened until June 1831. The modern road now goes along behind the embankment because the top road was not wide enough for present day traffic.

Figure 66: The Bass Maltings, Sleaford

28 Sleaford & Sutton Bridge

on the opposite side of the road. Several of the original streets of houses still remain at this end of Sutton Bridge, and also the Bridge Hotel which has been rebuilt several times.

The so-called 'Norwich and Spalding' railway from Spalding reached here in 1862 and a separate company, the 'Lynn and Sutton Bridge' railway, extended the line from here to Kings Lynn in 1864. The second company decided to use the existing road bridge over the Nene instead of building a Figure 67: Artist's impression of 'lighthouses' at Nene bridge of its own. As the two railways were not outfall directly in line with each other there was an S- shaped section of line to connect them. For a short beyond the sea The new river channel extended out time there were two stations but then both used the bank bank into deeper water and at the end of each station on the S-bend. In 1866 the 'Peterborough, (5H26), was a 'lighthouse', really a landmark so and Sutton' railway built its line to Sutton the old that vessels approaching the centre of Bridge from the south and had a junction with the estuary could see where the new channel was on the Norwich and Spalding railway west of the Sutton low-lying . Both lighthouses Bridge station. From the beginning the line from acquired fame survive and the one on the east bank Spalding to Kings Lynn, belonging to two separate some time in the twentieth century because for it little companies, was worked by the Great Northern was home to the young (Sir) Peter Scott, the Railway which dominated most of Lincolnshire. famous naturalist. The P.W. & S. was worked by the Midland Railway. Eventually these three lines that centred on Sutton Bridge were united with other lines in Norfolk and became the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

Figure 68: 'Lighthouse' on east bank of Nene

The leading engineers Thomas Telford and John Rennie were both involved in this estuary project from the 1820s, and Rennie's son Sir John designed the first Cross Keys Bridge which opened in 1830. That was of timber with a double cast-iron draw- bridge in the centte to allow shipping though. It Figure 69: Sutton Bridge, 1980 only lasted 20 years and was replaced by a new iron swing bridge a few yards to the south, designed by The railway used the 1850 road bridge until 1894- Robert Stephenson and opened in 1850. The toll 97, when the present bridge was built with a road houses for both bridges remain, the first on the east and railway side by side. This was a much larger bank and the second on the west bank. swing bridge moved by hydraulic power and with a control room located over the centre of the bridge. A river port and new settlement called Sutton It was made and erected by A Handyside & Co. Bridge was built next to the new bridge and several Ltd. of Derby and London, with hydraulic power by port buildings remain on the riverbank, including a Sir W C Armstrong, Whitworth &, Co. Ltd. riverside warehouse $H2D and another warehouse

29 Sleaford & Sutton Bridge

Hydraulic power is no longer used but the old very solidly built. However, the Dock was built in hydraulic tower (SF121) has been preserved close to quick silt and there was no frrm soil between it and the bridge. The railway was closed to passengers the river. The weakest point was apparently on on 28 February 1959 (though the line to Spalding each side of the lock and from the second day it retained a goods service until 1965) and the railway was clear that there was a leak. Holes appeared side of the bridge became a second road beside the lock, and though great quantities of silt, carriageway. In the last years before railway sand, clay, gravel and rock were thrown in they closure the road side had been controlled by traffic could not stop the leak. Eventually the dock walls lights. The bridge is now operated by Lincolnshire were undermined and started to slip into the basin, County Council, the highway authority, and does so the dock was abandoned until a solution could be still have to swing open occasionally to let vessels found. It never has been! The site of the basin through. eventually silted up, and from the 1920s has been Sutton Bridge Golf Club. In the early 1870s a young man in Wisbech initiated a scheme to build a dock (5H23) at Sutton Bridge and obtained the necessary Act of Parliament in 1875. The project was supported by English Brothers, timber merchants, and the Great Northern Railway also agreed to become involved. Work on building the dock started with the cutting of the first sod on I January 1878 and in 1880, before it was finished, the dock Company obtained permission to extend the basin to thirteen acres instead of the eight acres originally approved. This optimism proved to be misplaced.

Figure 7l: Port Sutton Bridge showing the riverside wharf and a vessel turning in the entrance to the former dock

In the 1980s a new scheme was mooted to create Port Sutton Bridge as a substantial riverside wharf, and so far this has been successful. The wharf is 1,150 feet long with four shipping berths and the triangular area of the old entrance to the nineteenth century dock has been re-excavated to provide a turning space for vessels using the port. The facility has 350,000 sq ft of warehouse space and parking space for over 100 lorries and makes use of the much improved Al7 road between Kings Lynn and Newark.

Figure 70: Aerial photo of 1980 showing the rectangular outline of the former dock, now part of Sutton Bridge golf course

The first vessel entered Sutton Bridge Dock on Saturday 14 May 1881 with a cargo of timber for English Brothers. It s planned to have an official opening on 29 Jwe but that never took place. The Dock had sloping concrete walls and the lock was Figure 72: Cargo ship turning near Port Sutton Bridge

30 New Bolinsbroke & Boston

Tour G NEW BOLINGBROKE & BOSTON

Maps: Landranger I22 & 131; Explorer 273 & 26I

Leaving Lincoln via Melville Street the entrance to Siemens (formerly Ruston's Iron Works, LN25) can be seen on the left. Then after crossing Pelham Bridge (opened 1958 by Queen Elizabeth lI, LN22) the shell of Robey's Perseverance Iron Works (LN21) is passed. Rustons and Robeys were both I founded in the 1850s. After passing the City Cemetery on the left there is a turnpike toll house 0N20\ of 1843.

Some two miles along the 81190 the road passes under the former Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway line which was opened on 1 August 1882 to give the GER access from to the coalfields of northern England. Over to the left Figure 74: Morrell's canning factory, is the riverside line of the GNR Lincolnshire Loop Line from Peterborough via Boston to Lincoln. It The route from Bardney to Revesby cuts across the opened on 17 October 1848 and closed on 5 southern edge of the , before October 1970, though the line from Lincoln to passing through Horncastle. The town relief road Bardney remained as a l2-mile 'siding' for several here first crosses the navigable river Bain and then years after that. The road then crosses the Roman the navigable Waring, which form the two branches and traverses the northern end of the of the Horncastle Navigation opened in 1802. The Lincolnshire fens before crossing the Witham at road goes alongside the site of the Waring basin Bardney Bridge (1893 WLI). To the left is a (8L34), but there is little evidence of that since the building used as a canning factory (WLn from the disastrous Horncastle Flood of 1960. 1930s to 1980s, and to the right is the site of At Revesby the road crosses the West Fen Bardney Sugar Beet Factory WL'l), the 0927-2001 Catchwater Drain and long straight fenland roads last of its kind in Lincolnshire. Beyond is the replace the meandering lanes of the Wolds. This is former Goods Shed (lVL5) of the GNR Lincolnshire the beginning of a civil engineering project on a Loop Line station, now refurbished as Bardney massive scale. Attempts to drain the fens had been Heritase Centre. made since medieval times but the East, West and Fens north of Boston were not conquered until John Rennie's scheme in the opening years of the nineteenth century.

These three fens contain about 40,000 acres and extend 16 miles east to west and 9 miles north to south. In the 1760s the river Witham had been put in a new channel from Chapel Hill to Boston (about 10 miles) and that, together with the construction of the Grand Sluice in Boston, had stopped the annual flooding of these fens by river or tides. However, they were still vulnerable to flooding by water running off the Wolds to the north of the fens. East Fen in particular had a network of meres not unlike Figure 73: Bardney road bridge

JI New Bolingbroke & Boston the Norfolk Broads, the result of medieval peat digging for the coastal salt industry. The permanent drainage and enclosure of these fens would be expensive and was not financially viable until the price of bread reached excessive heights during the Napoleonic Wars.

John Rennie's solution was to create two Catchwater Drains along the northern edge of the fens. These caught water coming off the Wolds and carried it across the West Fen and into the tidal Witham via the Stonebridge Drain and Maud Foster Drain. Rennie created a separate system of drains within the fens. They converged on the brand new, fourteen-mile long Hobhole Drain that fed into the Witham three miles downstream from Maud Foster Sluice. Once these fens had been drained they were Figure 76: Shop crescent, New Bolingbroke divided up between the surrounding that had previously enjoyed common rights over them, The route taken from New Bolingbroke to Witham excluding alarge amount of fen land that had to be Town in Boston is via the Seven Mile Straight, sold to cover the cost of the drainage works. Gypsey Bridge village and Anton's Gowt Lock Rennie started work on this vast project in 1802 and (8N10), where the only access from the Witham to it was effectively finished by 18i2. the navigable drains of the East, West and Wildmore Fens is situated. After Anton's Gowt the fens are left behind and the route into Boston enters the townlands, a slightly raised ridge of silt where the Anglo-Saxons first built villages between the inland fens and the coastal marshes.

Figure 75: Market Hall, New Bolingbroke

The village of Bolingbroke in the Wolds had ancient market rights and in the 1820s John Parkinson, a local land agent, revived those rights on the village's fen allotment with the intention of Figure 77: Typical Fenland drain bridge, Medlam, New Bolingbroke creating a new market town to serve the new fenland villages. His dream did not reach fruition The 1760s works to the Witham improved drainage but New Bolingbroke still has a market area faced and restored the navigation between Boston and by a crescent ofshops (now houses). Lincoln. Witham Town on the edge of Boston was Some of the rows of original workers' cottages the southern terminus of the navigation and here have gaps left for later streets to be created, and can be seen the Grand Sluice (8N11), a wharf, there is a side drain that served as canal access warehouses built by the navigation commissioners, (EL68, 69). Parkinson set up a textile factory next Witham Town public house and the former Barge to the basin but that did not last long. New Inn that was comparable in size and amenities to Bolingbroke is now home to Rundle's Engineering the coaching inns in the town centre. Other Works that, among other things, repairs and makes industrial premises in Witham Town included a galloping horses and other fairground ndes (EL70). short lived cotton factory and the iron works of

JZ New Bolinsbroke & Boston

William Howden (8N12), who made some of the The drains that cross the East, West and Wildmore first steam engines in Lincolnshire. Across the Fens converge on Cowbridge. John Rennie's river were the town's gas works, now mostly aqueduct (BN9) built of Aberdeen granite c.1805 demolished. In 1848 the GNR crossed the Witham carries the higher level Stonebridge Drain over the here and the present bridge dates from 1885. The Cowbridge Drain to separate the catchwater from railway embankment was not opened until 1852 the water that fell on the fens. From the side the due to arguments over the price of land, and for aqueduct looks like a wall because the waters of the four years the railway ran on a single track along two drains are aI a very similar level. To facilitate the townath! navigation and allow flexibility in drainage there were two locks (only one surviving, BN8) and a sluice between the two water networks. Also at Cowbridge is one of three matching, flat-arched footbridges cast at (Derbyshire) in 1811 (BN7). They were all erected over the Maud Foster Drain and two remain, the other being Hospital Bridge (8N13) near the Maud Foster windmill closer to the centre of the town. They were designed either by Rennie or William Jessop.

Figure 78: First temporary railway bridge, north of Grand Sluice, 1848 (lllustrated London News)

Maud Foster Drain runs alongside the route taken out of Boston. This navigable channel was cut through the townlands in 1568 and widened by John Rennie in the period 1802-12. In town the drain has vertical brick walls but in the countryside it has sloping earthen banks. After crossing the East Lincolnshire Railway there is a good view of Rawson's Bridge on the right, one of many fine brick bridges built over the new drains at the start of the nineteenth century. Figure 80: Trader Mill

From Cowbridge the route follows the West Fen Drain northwards to before turning east on the 81184 to the hne six-sail Sibsey Trader Windmill (1.877, ELTI) now owned by English Heritage. In Sibsey village the .416 northwards follows the ridge of glacial moraine between the East and West Fens that forms the ancient link between the townlands and the Wolds. Turning east in Stickney the East Fen Catchwater Drain is crossed and the minor road enters the East Fen with its black peaty soil. The large areas of land sold to pay for the drainage ofthese fens did not belong to any parish and new 'townships' were created (Eastville, Midville, Westville, Frithville and Figure 79: Hospital footbridge, Horncastle Road, ) with churches paid for out of a Boston special fund. One such is Midville church (1819) where this road crosses the Hobhole Drain.

JJ New Bolinsbroke & Boston

Figure Bl: Lade Bank Pumping Station Figure 82: Maud Fosler windmiLl, Boston

'l'he fourteen-milc long navigable Hobhole Drain The Maud Foster Windmill (8N14), on the northern was excavated in 1802-06 to drain the East Fen and edge of the town centre, is a built in then ca the water of all three fens into the 1819 for brothers T'homas and Isaac Reckitt from Witham just before it entered the Wash. At first it Wainfleet. They later moved to llull to found the drained East Fen by gravity but as the land in the business that became Reckitt and Colman. Ihis fen driod the land sank. Lade Bank Pumping mill, six storeys high with five sails, was preserved Station had to be built in 1867 to lift the water so ir by a Reckitt family trust in the 1950s and restored could llow through the townlands. Diesel pumps to full working order in the 1990s. It has a tea wcre installed in 1940 but the Victorian building room attached. and chimney still remain. Alongside the pumping 'I'he ncarby Bargate Bridge (8N15) station are the remains of a lock. over the Maud Foster Drain is John Rennie's original bridge of From here the route continues south, mostly along c1810 which was widened c1980 by taking down the banks of the drain, to Flobhole Sluice (BNi) and re-erecting the southern fagade. This widening where the drain enters the tidal Witham Havcn. was necessary lbllowing the construction of the John Rennie's original slurce of 1805-6 (repaired John Adams Way inner relief road through Boston. 1887) is now closed off and a modern pumping station was installed in a new cut in 1957. Close by arc a row of former Coastguard Cottages and thc lormer Jolly Sailor Inn, now a private house. When this drain was used for navigatron, inland boats could come here to put livestock on sea-going ships and rcceive incoming goods. 'l'he road back towards Boston crosses Nunn's Bridge (BN4), Britain's first in-situ pre-stressed concrete bridge, utilising post-tensioning of the reinforced concrcte beams. It was designcd by G E Buchner with L G Mouchel & Partners and built in 1941 wtth a single span of 72ft (22m).

Figure 83: Warehouses be.s'ide the river Witham, Boston

-'t+ Louth, the Wolds and the Marsh

Tour H LOUTH, THE WOLDS & THE MARSH

Maps: Landranger I2I & I22; Explorer 282, 283 & 27 4

The tour leaves Lincoln on the A46, passing opened in 1940 and closed in 1988. It through the village of where there are was mainly a bomber base operating Wellingtons, the remains of Stamp's four-sail windmill, built in Lancasters, Canberras and especially Lightning 1822 and operating until 1938. Close to the centre fighters, the mainstay of British defence between of the small market town of the road 1962 and 1988. passes under a railway bridge carrying the Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Lincoln to Grimsby line which was opened in 1848. The fine station buildings (WL28) still survive.

Figure 85: Television mast, Belmont transmitter

As the road runs south-east towards Louth the large television mast of the Belmont transmitter (EL2D appears. This mast stands at I,270 ft (385m) in Figure 84: Market Rasen Station, 2009 height and is the tallest structure in the UK (at one East of Market Rasen the route climbs into the time in Europe, too). It was built in 1959 with a Wolds and passes through the picturesque village of powerful 500kW transmitter reaching over 1.5 which once contained several watermills million people. However, with the forthcoming utilising the active stream of the young . change to digital broadcasting, the mast is due to be Three of these were paper mills operating in the reduced in height by 35m. nineteenth century, but there are few remains apart from one set of buildings (WL13) in the east of the village along the appropriately named Paper Mill Lane.

The Wolds contain some large and well-planned farmsteads such as at Manor Farm, Kirmond-le- Mire (WL14), erected in 1868 by the owner Christopher Turnor of . To the east of the village is an impressive example of lichets or terraces, cut into the hillside in medieval times for ease of ploughing.

The village of Binbrook is one of the largest of the Wold settlements, servicing the many large farms in the area. Just to the north of the village is RAF Figure 86: Toll house, , near Louth 35 Louth. the Wolds and the Marsh

Reaching the outskirts of Louth the route passes the Hallington Toll House (EL23), which was the town's gate on the Louth to Horncastle Turnpike, opened in 1770.It still retains its original windows allowing the gatekeeper good vision of the road from either direction.

Louth has some fine examples of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings including the Town Hall of 1854 and the Market Hall of 1866 (EL11), with an arched cast-iron and glass roof reminiscent of a major railway terminal.

Figure 88: Maltings, Newbridge Hill, Louth

Louth was linked to the North Sea by a canal, designed and built by John Grundy in I77O at a cost of f28.000. It terminated one mile east of the town at the Riverhead and over the years the town has expanded to include the area. The canal operated untll 1924 when business was very low and the damage created by the serious flood in 1920 made repair uneconomic. A number of fine large ware- houses (EL7) remain near Riverhead and most of the seven locks along the canal still survive.

Figure 87: Market Hall, Louth, 1866

By the mid-nineteenth century the town was the third largest in the county after Lincoln and Boston, serving a very prosperous agricultural community. There were many wind and water mills in the town and a number of the latter still survive without machinery, such as the Crown M/'I (EL9) in Ramsgate Road, built in I716 but greatly enlarged, especially in the late-nineteenth century. Its water wheel was replaced by a turbine which worked with Figure 89: Warehouses at Riverhead, Louth a gas- and later an oil-engine to power the mill machinery.

The Great Northern Railway opened its East Lincolnshire branch connecting Boston with Grimsby in 1848. Although the route was closed in 1970 and much of the line removed. the town's fine neo-Jacobean station (EL10) of 1854 still survives. Close to this building are the huge concrete maltings which were built in 1950 by Associated British Maltsters to replace an older building destroyed by bombs in 1940. This has now closed and the building's fate is uncertain; demolition is the preferred option, but the cost is prohibitive.

Figure 90: Mill

36 Louth, the Wolds and the Marsh

The tour continues to follow the canal on its Gayton Engine Pumping Station (8L21) dates from easterly path to the sea, with the road passing over 1850 and drains the surrounding farmland into the Ticklepenny Lock on the route to Alvingham. River. It once housed a steam-powered beam engine but was thought to have been replaced (Et5) dates from the The water mill at Alvingham later by a single-cylinder horizontal steam engine 1770s. but earlier mills are recorded on this site by Robey of Lincoln. A Petter Atomic twin- from the thirteenth century. In the 1820s the upper cylinder marine diesel of ll2hp replaced the steam machinery stories were added and much of the engine in 1945, driving a Gwynne pump. The plant pairs dates from this period. It has two of was made redundant in 1956, replaced by an overdriven Peak stones powered by an 11 ft electrically operated pumping station at nearby (3.35m) iron breast wheel, with the water coming Theddlethorpe. from the River Lud, passing under the canal through 5ft (1.5m) diameter inverted brick siphons. Close by the road into is At Alvingham Lock (EL6) the unusual scalloped Theddlethorpe railway station on the Louth to sided walls that help resist lateral pressure from line built by the GNR in 1877 and unstable soil can be examined. closed in 1960. Theddlethorpe gas terminal (EL20) was opened in 1912 by Conoco Phillips which employs about 100 staff on the site. Natural gas from the Viking Gas Field in the North Sea passes from the station into the National Gas Grid system, whilst any liquids are transferred to the company's Humberside refinery. A number of wind farms can be found along the Lincolnshire coast such as the ones at Mablethorpe, which, in 20O2, were the first to be erected in Lincolnshire.

Mablethoqpe was just a small coastal village in the 1840s and was a centre for ship-breaking. When the GNR opened the branch line to Louth in 1877 it began to develop as a popular holiday resort, with its heyday being in the 1950s. Between Mable- Figure 91: Alvingham Lock, Louth Canal thorpe and Sutton on Sea is , which was Humber Radio, opened in The route now passes near RAF which was noted as the base for This was one of eight'ship to shore'coastal opened in 1938 and became an important training 1927. proved crucial on the night of 31 centre, firstly as the Air Armament School, then radio stations. It east coast of Lincolnshire from 1946 as the home of the Empire Central January 1953 when the many lives and caused Flying School, and finally as the College of Air suffered floods that claimed Warfare. It closed in 1974 and is now the immense destruction to land and property. and a headquarters of District Council The development of Sutton-on-Sea was boosted in business park. 1884 by the opening of a steam tram service travelling alongside the road to Alford where it connected with the mainline GNR. However, this quaint tramway, powered by distinctive steam tram engines made by the firms of Merryweather and Dick Kerr, only lasted five years. Irresistible competition had come in 1886 from the Sutton to Willoughby branch of the GNR, later in 1888 to be extended to connect with the Mablethorpe branch. This brought vast crowds in enormous excursion trains each summer but these ceased when the line closed in 1960.

Figure 92: Gayton Engine Pumping Station

at Louth, the Wolds and the Marsh

tramway on its way to the GNR station. At the western end of the town is Thompsons' millwright workshop (E146), still undertaking repair and restoration work throughout the country. Nearby to these workshops is the small forge of Messrs Arrowsmiths, which now builds metal buildings for farm and industrial use.

Horncastle was the location of a horse fair held each August and possibly the largest in the world. Its peak was in the 1850s, when the crowds were being served by over 48 inns within the town. Business declined Figure 93: Brick kiln, Sutton on Sea by the 1890s and it finally ceased in 1948. (see p.31). A short distance inland at Sutton Ings is a small but Two miles west of Horncastle is the village of well-preserved brick klln (EL50) dating from the Thimbleby with its remarkable survival of 'mud early 1860s. In this brickyard, now a caravan site, and stud' cottages, many of which as still thatched are the remains of a brick wind pump used to drain and provide examples of the type of vernacular the water from the pits. building once common in the east of the county. On the road to Alford is the lovely thatched church The village of Bardney on the river Witham was at and at is the tower of a large also on the GNR loop line opened in 1848 and windmill dating from 1861. The fine 5-sail linking Boston with Lincoln. It served as the main Hoyle's mill at Alford (EIA4) was built by Oxley, line to the North from London until the 'Direct a local mill-wright in 1813; it worked until 1955 line', via Grantham, was opened in 1852. In 1970 after being restarted by the Banks family. The mill the line was closed and now only the goods shed is now in the hands of the Lincolnshire County (WL5) survives. Over the road is the pea canning Council, having been restored in 1978 by factory WLn constructed for a Mr Sharpe and then Thompsons, the local millwright. used by the Foster canning company in the mid- 1930s. Finally Morrells owned the factory until it closed in the late 1980s, (see p.31).

Figure 95: Bardney sugar beetfactory

Figure 94: Hoyle's Mill, Alford The huge sugar beet factory (WIA) at Bardney was constructed in 1927 by the Lincolnshire Sugar The tour continues through the town past the Company. This plant continued in operation until thatched Manor House (EIAS), of 166l recently 2001, and was the last of this design to operate. It restored and now the town museum. The route is still used by British Sugar as a packaging and being followed is still that once taken by the distribution site.

38 RAF Stations

Tour J RAF STATIONS

Maps: Landranger l2I & L22;Explorer 272,273 & 261

By virhre of its topography and its location RAF opened in 1916 as RFC , a Lincolnshire has long been associated with the Royal grass aerodrome located four miles north of Lincoln. Air Force and it is often known as the 'Home of the It was home to part of 33 Squadron RFC which had RAF'. Its flat, open countryside made it ideal for the been set up to counter German Zeppelin raids from development of airfrelds by the across the North Sea. It was envisaged that the in the early days of military flying. During the First airfield would be a temporary facility for the World War fragile but heavily-loaded aircraft could duration of the war, so most of the buildings were take advantage of the extra lift provided by currents light wooden ones. They were removed when it of air rising over the escarpment known as the closed in 1920 and the land returned to agriculture. Lincoln Edge and the infrastructure created then went on to form the basis ofthe huge expansion during the 1930s and in the Second World War. By mid-1945 there were some 48 operational stations, many of them bomber bases, and it has been estimated that these airfields occupied 30,000 acres of land. Today the County still plays a critical role in the defence of Britain with a number of ooerational bases and other RAF facilities.

The tour starts with a visit to RAtr' Scampton for the Station Museum and then, passing various sites en route, pauses at Coleby before going on to RAF Coningsby for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and finishing at . Figure 97: Officers'quarters, RAF Scampton

The airfield was reopened during the 1930s Expansion Period when a large amount of new land was purchased to the south extending towards the village of Scampton. At that time developments included four Type C hangars and many of the substantial flat-roofed brick buildings which still exist today. (It is interesting to note that many of the 'standard' designs of airfield buildings put up during the Expansion Period were vetted by the Royal Fine Arts Commission). Bombers of nos 49 and 83 Squadrons were based at RAF Scampton, as it was now known.

Figure 96: Water tower, RAF Scampton The legendary 617 Squadron was formed at RAF Scampton in March 1943, and it was from there that the Dambusters conducted their raids on the dams of

39 RA-F Stations the Ruhr in May that year. The Station Museum the site as a repair base for badly-damaged holds many artefacts relating to life at Scampton, Lancasters and it was a simple matter to tow the including much, of course, about the Dambusters. repaired aircraft down the road the short distance to RAF Waddington for return to service. There was Three concrete runways were added later in 1943 a very fine triple Belfast Truss Hangar here until and the airfield remained principally a bo er base 2001 when it was demolished. The site is now an for the rest of the war. From then until 1955 it had industrial estate. a variety of uses, including lease by the USAF during the Berlin Airlift, and it was also home for a squadron of Canberras, Britain's first jet bomber. It then closed for three years to be adapted to take the newly-developed nuclear-capable Vulcan jet bomber. The old three-runway pattern was scrapped in favour of a single runway, 2700 metres long. This necessitated a diversion of the (), which now sweeps around the NE end of the runway in a graceful curve. The following years of Vulcan operations saw continuous development and expansion at the site which eventually employed some 3500 Service oersonnel. Figure 99: Hangars at RFC Bracebridge Heath

RAF Waddington is another airfield with a long history, having opened in 1916 as a flying training station. Hundreds of pilots, including some from the US Army, trained here on a variety of aircraft until the station was put into Care and Maintenance in 1920.

The station was enlarged significantly during the 1930s Expansion Period and it re-opened as a bomber base in March 1937. Initially it housed aircraft and then Handley Page Figure 98: 617 Squadron crest Hampdens. When war was declared Waddington's squadrons were in action from the very first day. Following the end of the Cold War Scampton was The Hampdens were replaced by Avro Manchesters identified for run-down and closure, spending a and then in December l94l Waddington hosted the period in Care and Maintenance before being given first operational Lancaster bombers. The first a new lease of life hosting a variety of functions concrete runways were laid in 1943. associated with the control of airspace. It also serves as the home of the RAF Red Arrows display After the war Waddington continued as a bomber team. station, housing a variety of aircraft including B29s The agricultural machinery manufacturers of belonging to the US Strategic Air Command. After a period of Care and Maintenance, Waddington Lincoln had skills in making products which reopened with Canberras in 1955 and in 1957 combined the use of wood, metal and other Vulcan aircraft arrived. Vulcans remained in materials which were highly appropriate to early service there until 1984 and was aircraft from aircraft manufacture, and during the First World it Waddington which carried out the Black Buck raid War thousands of aircraft were made by the on Stanley airfield and provided in-flight refuelling principal Lincoln firms. The airfield at Bracebridge during the Falklands conflict. The Display Vulcan Heath opened in 1916 as a manufacturing and flight XH558 was based here until it was sold. testing field for the Sopwith aircraft made by Robey of Lincoln. It was then taken over by the Royal Flying Corps and became RFC Bracebridge. During World War II AV Roe ran

40 RAF Stations

equipment in which large quantities of petrol was burned along the edges of the runway to disperse the fog. Some of Metheringham's hard surfaces now form public roads.

Recognising the enormous surface covered by the runways and hard standing of disused airfields, Lincolnshire County Council carried out a programme of recovering the concrete for use as road-building hardcore and this project also returned thousands ofacres ofrich agricultural land back to its original application. Whilst this resulted Figure 100: B.2A XM607 at RAF in the irretrievable loss of some atchaeology, it has Waddington been of great benef,rt to the local economy.

Today, RAF Waddington plays a major role in RAF Coningsby is one of the UK's three air surveillance, intelligence-gathering, reconnaissance defence fighter bases although it started out as a and target acquisition. Aircraft flown here bomber base, receiving its first operational aircraft comprise the Nimrod Rl, the E-3D Sentry and the (Hampden bornbers) in early 1941. It remained a Sentinel. bomber airfield until 1966, albeit with periods of closure such as in late 1942 into 1943 when RAF Coleby Grange opened as a relief landing concrete runways were laid. 617 Squadron 'The ground for RAF College in 1939 but it Dambusters' were stationed here in 1943-44 before was soon transferred to Fighter Command as a moving to RAF Woodhall Spa. It was during this satellite of RAF Digby. During its brief life it period that 617's Mess was located at the Petwood hosted many different fighter units including Hotel, Woodhall Spa and its Squadron Bar is Canadian and Polish nightfighters. It closed in dedicated to their memory. A Marker Force 1945. There were few permanent buildings (and comprising of 83 and 97 Squadrons from Group 8, only a grass runway) but a sadly neglected watch Pathfinder Fotce, was established at Coningsby in tower remains. Personnel were housed in wooden 1944 and their efforts contributed much to the huts in woods to the east of the A15 and they highly accurate night bombing of the later stages of depended on RAF Digby for daily supplies. the war. Nearby is an eighteenth century land lighthouse, Dunston Pillar (see p.43), which was shortened as a safety measure because of air operations in the vicinity.

RAF Coleby Grange re-opened in 1958 to host 142 Squadron's Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles with three launchers. These missiles carried I megaton nuclear warheads. They soon became obsolete and were withdrawn during 1963. The site retumed to agriculture, although it is believed that some concrete hard standing for the missile launchers remains.

Metheringham Airfield opened in 1943 to become the home of 106 Squadron flying Lancaster bombers. It closed in the spring of 1946 after the squadron was disbanded. Most of the operational Figure I0l : Aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial buildings have been demolished and the land Flight returned to agriculfure but a few communal and technical buildings remain. Some have been turned into a Visitor Centre in memory of the personnel who served there. Metheringham was one of the few airfields equipped with the FIDO fog dispersal

4l RAF Stations

After the war Coningsby flew Mosquitos, Lincolns, store and a detachment of Bloodhound surface to Washingtons, Canberras and Vulcans. In 1964 it air missiles was established there in the late 1950s. was designated as the home of the ill-fated TSR2 Bloodhound was withdr n in 1965 and much of and the station closed when that project was the site was sold off for agriculture and the cancelled. In 1966 it was transferred to a fighter extraction of sand and gravel. However, RAF role and, following major expansion, it became the Coningsby retained a presence there with a group home to Phantom fighter/bombers serving in both carrying out heavy maintenance of engines for operational and training roles. Subsequently it Tornado aircraft. This closed in 2003 since which housed the Tornado F3 interceptor and today it is time the site has been empty. pioneering the service introduction of the Nearby Tattershall . It is continuing a tradition at Thorpe is Thorpe Camp, which was part the Spa which started with the Phantom of simultaneously of RAF Woodhall No I Communal Site. The site included the Officers' and providing front-line operational aircraft, together Sergeants' Messes, Airmen's Dining and the with evaluation, conversion and tactical training for Halls together the new aircraft. NAAFI building, with ration stores, latrine and ablution blocks. Today the Airmen's Dining The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight has been Halls and the NAAFI and ration store together with housed at Coningsby since 1976. It comprises a ancillary buildings form the Thorpe Camp Visitor Lancaster, a Dakota, five Spitfires (including the Centre. The Centre was set up in 1988 with the only one still flying which took part in the Battle of aim of illustrating the story of RAF Woodhall Spa Britain), two Hurricanes and two Chipmunks. The and its squadrons, and civilian life in Lincolnshire latter are used for training BBMF pilots to fly 'tail durins World War II. draggers' as there are now no operational aircraft in this configuration. The aircraft are painted in liveries to represent historically significant aircraft with a story to tell and they are frequently seen over the skies of Lincolnshire during the summer months en route to their many display venues and flypasts.

Figure 103: Entrance to Thorpe Camp, RAF Woodhall Spa

At the entrance to the Centre stand a Bloodhound missile and an English Electric Lightning interceptor. A major outside feature is the Memorial Garden dedicated in 2002 to all those who lost their lives while serving at RAF Woodhall Spa. Each of the four Squadrons serving here, Nos 97 , 6lJ , 619 and 627 , has its own small garden and Figure 102: Lancaster PA474from Battle of Britain plaque bearing its Coat of Arms. Under cover there Memorial Flight are numerous displays depicting diverse aspects of RAF wartime activities and both civilian and Civil RAF Woodhall Spa came into service in 1942 as a Defence life during WWII. bomber base. It was a satellite airfield of RAF Coningsby and it was from here that 617 Squadron's 34 Lancasters and two Mosquito low- level target markers made their last operational sorties of the war before moving to RAF Waddington. Later the site was used as a bomb

A1 AL Spalding & Deeping Fen

Tour K SPALDING & DEEPING FEN

Maps: Landranger 131; Explorer249

Leaving Lincoln via Melville Street the entrance to wider than the railway so all crossing keepers' Siemens (formerly Ruston's Iron Works LN25) can cottages and stations along the route have gone, be seen on the left. Then after crossing Pelham except for the building at which has found Bridge (opened 1958 by Queen Elizabeth II LN22) a new use. This railway, like all those across the the shell of Robey's Perseverance Iron Works fens, was almost completely straight for its 30 mile (LN2I) is passed. Rustons and Robeys were both stretch between Peterboroush and Boston. founded in the 1850s. Further along there rs a The Fens turnpike toll house (LN20) of 1843 next to the second set of traffic lights. The turnpike road Following the decline of agriculture at the end of ascended Canwick Hill to reach Lincoln Heath that the nineteenth century new sources of income had extended nearly all the way to Sleaford. The route to be found. The area around Spalding became then passes Bracebridge Heath Water Tower (L924- famous in the twentieth century for the production 25 NK2) and a few miles further on the remains of of daffodil, tulip and other bulbs. From 1958 Dunston Pillar (NK8), built in 1751 as a land Spalding had an annual Tulip Parade with floats lighthouse and reduced to its present height in decorated with the unwanted heads of tulips (the t940. industry only wanted the bulbs) but in recent years the future of this parade has been in doubt as fewer tulips are grown. Many artefacts of this industry are preserved at the Bulb Museum at the Birchsrove Garden Centre in Pinchbeck.

Figure 104: Dunston Pillar

At Sleaford the route turns east along the A17 as far as the roundabout at Sutterton where the Great Northern Railway goods shed may be noticed on the left. Between Boston and Spalding the new Figure 105: Beam engine, Pinchbeck Marsh Pumping ,4.16 follows the line of the old GNR Lincolnshire Station Loop Line, opened 1848, closed 1970. The road is

43 Spalding & Deeping Fen

The reclamation of the fens was dependent on drainage engines. Wind power was followed by steam, diesel and finally electricity. A fine example of a steam pumping station (1833 SHi) has been preserved at Pinchbeck Marsh since 1952. This was the last steam-driven scoop-wheel drainage engine to work in the fens. The Welland and Deepings then diverted the drain to the new engine house alongside so that the old one could be preserved. The engine by the of Derbyshire is a single-cylinder rotative A-frame beam engine of20nhp and is the oldest such engine in situ. It drove the 22ft (6.7m) diameter scoop wheel to drain about 4,000 acres. Figure 107: Blacksmith's shop, Riverside, Spalding

Spalding was a small port for much of its history, despite being several miles inland. Riverside features on the banks of the Welland used to include boatyards, rope-makers, a gas works, granaries, warehouses and merchants' grand residences as well as a blacksmith's shop (SF19). This charming early nineteenth century workshop has a small external yard for fitting iron tyres to wheels. In the wall next to the river is a small hole for work on anchors for coastal and river boats.

After the blacksmith's shop a drive along the riverbank gives a view of several warehouses (SH6) as well as the steam flour mill (SHD, which in the twentieth century became the headquarters of Geest Industries, and the South Holland steam mill that is now apartments. There are also many fine merchants' houses linins the roads on both banks of the .

Figure 106: MouLton Mill

East of Spalding is the village of Moulton with the 9-storey Moulton Mill (SH1Z). It is one of the tallest ever built in Britain and is claimed to be the largest surviving. The tower is 8lft Qa.7m) high to the top of the kerb. The cap and sails were lost in 1895 but most of the internal machinery and equipment survive. It was in use in connection with Biggadyke's corn merchant business until the 1990s and is now being restored to working order by a trust. National interest was aroused when it Figure 108: Albion MiLI, Spalding was feafured on BBCtv's 'Restoration' in 2003.

44 Spalding & Deeping Fen

Figure 109: Riverside warehouses, Spalding Figure 11i,: Ayscoughee Hall, Spalding

There used to be two railway bridges over the On the right is Spalding High Bridge, built by the Welland in Spalding: for the Midland and Great Commissioners of Deeping Fen in 1838 (SI110), Northern Joint Railway to Kings Lynn, and the followed on the left by the Ayscoughfee Hall Great Northem and Great Eastern Joint Railway to Museum in a former mansion. March (in the Isle of Ely) respectively. Both have gone, though a footbridge remains on the site of the first of them.

Figure 110: High Bridge, Spalding

Coronation Following the flooding in 1948 the Figure I l2: Spalding Railway Station Channel was created in the 1950s as a flood relief 'by-pass' around the eastern side of Spalding. This is crossed twice on the tour, once on the northern edge of Spalding at Fulney and later on the Welland Bank in the southern part of the town.

45 Spalding & Deeping Fen

Deeping Fen

South-west of Spalding is the vast tract of Deeping Fen. Attempts to drain and reclaim this fen were made in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth cenfuries and success was only achieved in 1825 when two steam engines were built at (SH4) on the edge of Spalding at a cost of f26,673. For many years they were the largest steam installation in the fens, but they ceased working in 1925 and were scrapped in 1952. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that a church was built in the middle of this fen, next to the Figure 1 13: Footbridge, close to SpaLding RaiLway turnpike road, and the area became the parish of Station . On the western edge of this settlement, right alongside the A16, is the Museum of Agricultural Hand Tools at Vine House Farm owned by Mr Nicholas Watts.

lllll Til 11il $I

Figure I I5: Hand tooLs drainage work Figure I I4: Chatterton water tower, Spalding for

46 New Holland & Barton on Humber

Tour L NEW HOLLAND & BARTON ON HUMBER

Maps: Landranger II2; Explorer 281

New Holland

From medieval times Barton upon Humber was the southern end of the ferry service to Hull. A shorter ferry crossing from Hull to New Holland was set up in 1803. This became the logical termination of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, which arrived in 1848, and New Holland then overtook Barton as the main ferry point to Hull. The ferry service to Hull continued until June 1981 when the opened and Barton again became the crossing point of the Humber. The port of New Holland developed around the railway terminal and the railway company established the adjacent village in 1849-50 with housing around an Figure I I7: South-west view of The Humber Bridge open grassed atea, named by the railway company 'Manchester Square' (NL2 5). Barton upon Humber

The Humber Bridge (I\LLIB) can be seen from viewpoints with public car parks on the east and west side of Barton Haven. On the east side there is the Water's Edge Visitor Centre and Country Park with displays describing the development of the area and the wildlife that can be seen in the nature reserve. The Humber Bridge, designed by Freeman, Fox and Partners, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on24 June 1981. At the time it was the longest span suspension bridge in the world at 4,626ft (1,410m). It is a toll bridge with the bridge visitor centre on the northern, side.

Figure I 16: Manchester Square, Nau Holland Barton developed around two centres; one being the Market Place and the other Barton Haven (NL19). There is no public access to New Holland Railway The Haven was once the centre of maritime and Pier (NL23) but it can be seen from the Humber industrial activities. To the east and west are the Bank public footpath. This 1,375ft (419m) long clay pits around which the brick and tile industry pier was where the passenger ferry to Hull docked. developed. Only one tile manufacturer is still in The original timber pier of 1848 was replaced by a operation. concrete and steel one in 1923-28. The upstream and downstream afins of the pierhead were replaced in 1935-39 and 7946-49 respectively. The stations at each end of the pier were closed when the ferry service ended. The landward station has since been demolished.

47 New Holland & Barton on Humber

Figure 120: Commemorative plaque by entrance to ropery

The building houses an exhibition on the history of rope making on the site. At the south end of the Figure I I8: Barton Haven ropewalk building is the Despatch Building with its On the west side of the Haven is the boatyard iron crane, dating from 1807. It was here that the where several generations of the Clapson family finished rope was stored ready for despatch by boat built wooden boats and today, in other hands, small to countries all over the world. steel vessels are still being built. The coast-guard station on the west side survives but is now the termination of the long distance footpath. Gone are the extensive maltings and the chemical works which polluted large areas on the east side of the Haven. After an extensive clean up these were replaced by the Water's Edge Visitor Centre and the Country Park.

Figure l2l : Rope works despatch building

To the south of the Despatch Building across the road is Barton Station, a sad reflection of its former self. It is now only a halt at the end of the line.

Opposite the station is the derelict Hewson's Mill. Figure I I9: Hall's Rope Walk, Barton There is no public access. It was built in 1813 and continued under wind power assisted by an engine On the east side of Barton haven are the s iving installed in 1840 until shortly after WWl. The cap buildings of Hall's Barton Ropery (NL20). This was removed in the 1920s. Grist milling continued power the 1930s. was once the longest covered rope walk in the under engine until country. The first buildings on the site date from between 1800 and 1803 and rope making continued until 1989.

48 New Holland & Barton on Humber

peak of the industry in the nineteenth century there were at least thirteen yards in operation. Today only one survives at Hoe Hlll (NL22) to the east of Barton Haven.

Figure 122: Old Mill, Market Place, Barton Figure 124: Drying shed (or hack) at Blythe's Tile yard

The Old Mill, Market Place (NL21) overlooks the This tileyard is not open to the public but can be Market Place in Barton-on-Humber. It was seen from the Humber Bank path. It derives it described as being recently erected in 1803 and name from an earlier yard further to the east where ceased working by wind in 1868. It was driven by its remains can be seen to the north-west of the a gas engine until it milling stopped altogether sailing club. The operating yard has two coal-fired around 1950 when it became derelict. There was a kilns making pantiles and flat tiles. It has recently proposal in 1985 to demolish it and use the site for been re-equipped with a new pug mill for preparing a supermarket. It was reconstructed in 1992 when the clay and new locally made hydraulic extruding it received a new cap and was converted into a pub. machines. Clay is no longer dug on the site but still Some of the machinery survives and can be seen comes from a local source. from the bar. It is Grade II listed. The Old Mill was a whiting mill in which chalk was ground into fine powder for use in the manufacture of paint and putty.

Figure 125: Blythe's Tile Yard, Ings Lane, Barton

The clay tiles are dried in traditional long drying Fisure 123: Hoe Hill Tile Worlcs, Barton sheds (hacks) although today the process is aided by electric dehumidifiers. The yard is part of a larger group with traditional brickmaking in Sussex as well. The underlying process of tile making has Brick and tile making has taken place in the Barton not changed for centuries although today it is aided area from at least the seventeenth century. At the

49 New Holland & Barton on Humber by modem machinery, but the traditional kilns are If you are fortunate you may see the Humber sloop still stacked by hand. 'Amy Howson' berthed in the navigation. This traditional sailing vessel is owned by the Humber To the west of the Humber Bridge is William Keel and Sloop Society. She is a fore and aft Blythe 's Ings Lane tile yard (NL17) which, until its rigged, steel-hulled vessel built at in 1914. closure in 2006, operated the last remaining On the west side of the Ancholme Navigation is the brickyard railway in the country. The yard and its twentieth century cement works. Its raw material, buildings can be readily seen from the Humber chalk, is transported by overhead conveyor from Bank footpath. At its closure the yard had one the ouarn' to the east. operating kiln and one under construction. The Humber Bank clay is particularly suitable for brick and tile making and the remains of the yards and their clay pits can be seen in adjacent parishes as well. The worked-out pits are now flooded. Some are now nature reserves while others are used for angling and for sailing.

Figure 127: Humber sloop, 'Amy Howson', on the Humber

Figure I26: : Sluice & Tidal Lock. Humber keel and sloop moored together; overhead conveyor in the background.

South Ferriby

The sluice and tidal lock at South Feniby (NLla) was built tn 1842-44 by Sir John Rennie on the site ofearlier sluices of 1640 and c1769 to separate the Ancholme Navigation from the tidal River Humber. The A1077 crosses the lock on a swing bridge built in 1982.

Figure 128: Humber keel

50 Scunthoroe & the Isle of Axholme

Tour M SCUNTHORPE STEEL WORKS & THE ISLE OF AXHOLME

Maps: Landranger I 12; Explorer 281& 280

Figure 129: GeneraL view of Scunthorpe iron & steel works, c1930 f'he route to Scunthorpe on the A15 follows the line railway track and horse and cart to the 'frent and on of Ermine Street. thc Roman road from Lincoln to via the Yorkshire waterways to Dawes's furnaces at the Humber. A major diversion of the road was Elsecar near Barnsley. created in the late 1950s 4 miles north of the city so The quantity of ironstonc available and the high that a principal runway at RAF Scampton could be cost of transporting it to Yorkshire soon persuaded created for the Vulcan bomber (see p.40) Dawes to build three blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, 'l'he town of Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire is the I-rrst of which began operating in 1864. Coal based on fivc villages: Ashby, Brumby, Crosby, had to be brought in from some distance but Frodingham and Scunthorpe, which in 1851, as limestone, the other principal ingredient of the largely agricultural settlements, had a combined extraction process, was readily available in the population of only 1245. Changcs began to occur locality. Meanwhile Winn, having subdivided his when the potential fbr extracting iron on a large land into a series of half-mile by two-mile blocks, scale from the local outcrops of ore was recognised leased a second area in Frodingham to Joseph Cliff in the late-1850s. '['he local landowner, Charles of Leeds, whose Irrodingham Iron Company set up Winn, reachcd an agrecment in 1859 with an three blast furnaces between 1865 and 1871. A ironmaster, George Dawes, for the excavation of third company, the North Lincolnshire Iron ore. Initially it was moved by narrow-gauge Company, based on a consortium led by Daniel Adamson of Manchester, leased land fiom Winn further to the east, where they werc entitled to establish furnaces but not extract ore . Winn himself controlled the supply of the ironstone they needed. During the 1870s threc more companies began iron extraction, and other local landowners, such as Lord Sheffield and Lord Beauchamp, also leased land for the new industry. By 1880 there werc 2l lurnaces operaling.

Figure l30: BLast lurnaces at SctLnthorpe, c)930

51 Scunthome & the Isle of Axholme

s

Kev: 1 Coal handling plant; 2 Coke ovens; 3 Heavy plate mill; 4 Heavy sedion mill; 5 Rod mill; 6 Blast tumaces; 7 Medium section mill; 8 Bloom and Billet mill; 9 Ore 10 Ore 11 BOS and Concast

Figure 13I: SITE PLAN, Corus Works, Scunthorye, 2009

Ironstone in the Scunthorpe area was initially Scunthorpe steel was first made at the Frodingham extracted from outcrops and later the strata close to Melting Shop in 1890. The complex included two ground level under blown sand were taken out by fixed open-hearth furnaces, a rolling mill, a cogging hand using the cut-and-fiIl method. The first mill and a billet mill. By the end of the century five machine to make an impact on the excavation more steel making furnaces were operating. The process was the grab crane (1885), followed by Talbot tilting furnace installed in 1902 was the first excavator (1905) and steam shovel 09ID. in Europe.

A sequence of amalgamations left three steel making companies by the 1930s: Appleby- Frodingham, Redbourn and John Lysaght, with a total workforce of 22,000. Scunthorpe, officially incorporated in 1936 as town and borough embracing the original five parishes, had grown by leaps and bounds; in 1901 the population was 1 1,000, by \936 more than 35,000.

The steel industry was nationalised in 1967. This was the prelude to the integration of the three works and massive investment Figure 132: Steam shoveL near Scunthorpe, c1930 followed with a large new basic oxygen steelmaking plant (BOS), new coke On at least two occasions in the 1870s the closed- ovens, ore preparation plant and mills the Anchor top blast furnaces exploded because the local ore project, completed in l9l3l4. The company was had relatively low levels of iron coupled with high subsequently de-nationalised in the 1980s. proportions of lime, sulphur and water. This was Normanby Park Works (Lysaghts) closed around overcome by mixing the ironstone with silica- I98Il2 and all production is now based on the beaing ore from Lincoln or areas of Appleby Frodingham/Dawes Lane site. ironstone.

52 Scrurthorpe & the Isle of Axholme

The plant for making steel by the basic oxygen process at ll4m high is higher than St Paul's Cathedral. The three vessels in the plant, each containing 300 tonnes, together yield a weekly maximum output of over 100,000 tonnes. In the computer-controlled process molten iron carried in torpedoes from the blast furnaces is transferred to the vessels by 290-tonne transfer ladles. After desulphurisation, scrap metal and flux are added before the blow of pure oxygen gas commences. Limestone is added to form slag before a final blow. In effect, the vessel produces pure iron to Figure I 33 : Scunthorpe blast 2000 furnaces, which are later added ferrous alloys and carbon in ladle arc furnaces to create steel which meets The modern Corus Works (NLl at Scunthorpe l) customer specifications. cover 2000 acres, have a 15-mile perimeter and contain 100 miles of railroad and 39 miles of road. Molten steel is cast in four continuous casting There are approximately 4000 employees and up to machines to produce slabs, billets and blooms. 2000 contractors who keep the plant in continual Each machine usually takes up to 10 x 300 tonne operation. This is the largest single-site steel ladles of steel in a sequence lasting 10 to 15 hours. manufacturing operation in the country, with an The molten steel is forced though water-cooled annual output of 4.5 megatonnes. copper moulds and the extruded steel is water cooled. Iron ore and coal are imported from such places as Australia, Brazll, Poland and Canada; only the The bloom and billet mill provides a semi-finished limestone is local. The raw materials arrive in large product from the cast steel. At one mile, it is the bulk-carrying vessels at Immingham deep-water world's longest mill. Finished steel in various terminal, 23 miles away, and are transferred by rail sections is then produced at the Medium Section, to the works. About 60 trains of ore arrive at the Plate and Rod Mills. In each mill the steel is re- terminal each week. The imported ore is 70-15% heated and passed through water-cooled rollers iron with very little waste, as compared to the local under carefully controlled conditions. ore which was as low as I3%o. The ore is blended Important products include rail lengths for British with coke and limestone, sintered (heated) and then Rail, sections for the construction industry, wire rod broken tnto 2 to 3 inch pellets for feeding into the for drawing and fastening industries, and plates for furnace. fabrication and heavy vehicle manufacture. There are two coke oven plants, containing 208 ovens altogether, which are capable of producing 4000 tonnes of coke per day. Ammonium sulphate or liquor, tar and benzole are among the valuable by-products which are collected and refined alongside the coke ovens. The coal gas produced is used throughout the site. Additional coke has to be brought in.

The four Scunthorpe fumaces which convert iron ore into crude iron are named after British Queens: Mury, Bess (Elizabeth), Anne & Victoria. They are charged with sinter, coke, fine coal and additional ore in a fully automated process. Hot air at high pressure is blown into the furnace bottom causing Figure 134: Bridge, near Scunthorpe the coke to burn and generate a temperature of about 2000oC furnace Carbon in the centre. The route along the A18 out of Scunthorpe passes (iron oxide) to monoxide reacts with the ore over the Trent at Keadby Bridge, a Scherzer rolling produce iron, carbon dioxide and slag. liquid lift bridge built in f9n-16 by GCR for both road Granulated slag is now a very valuable by-product. and rail traffic (Nt8). It was originally electrically

53 Scunthorpe & the Isle of Axholme powered but the lifting span has been fixed down replaced by a Ruston Class 8HRC diesel engine, since the 1960s. and this in turn gave way to a Lister-Blackstone engine.

Figure I35: The Old Smithy,

Figure 137: Marshall boilers, Owston Ferry Pumping The Old Smithy at Owston Ferry is a Grade II Station listed building dated 1859. Four generations of the The boilers and all three engines, together with the Laming family operated a blacksmith's business original pair of 24-inch Drysdale pumps, remain in here and also worked as agricultural engineers and implement makers. The blacksmith's shop still the building and are being restored by a team of retains the forge, machinery and variety of iron volunteers. parts just as George Laming, the last of the family, left them when he died in 1988. The museum, run by volunteers, also exhibits a good collection of local drainage tools, agricultural machines made by the Lamings and a large display of artefacts, photographs and documents about the village and local area.

Figure 138: Owston Ferry Pumping Station

On the final leg of the journey a small marina at West Stockwith (in Nottinghamshire) marks the point where the once joined the Trent. This canal, 46 miles long, opened in 1777 with the section up to Retford engineered to take Figure 136: The Old Smithy, Owston Ferry ffrom original painting by David Curtis) wide-beam river craft and the remainder, through Worksop to Chesterfield, designed for narrow Owston Ferry Pumping Station (NLI) was built boats. The tour re-enters Lincolnshire by re- in 1910 on the bank of the Trent to drain about crossing the Trent over the former toll bridge at 5000 acres of low lying land in the Isle of Gainsborough (WIA7, see p.15), where the pair of Axholme. It was originally fitted with two toll houses on the east side survive. The final Marshall (of Gainsborough) Comish boilers, made stretch of the A57 into Lincoln follows the line of to work at 150 lbs/sq in, providing steam for a the Fossdyke Canal (LN11), which has Roman Marshall Class L engine. In 1932 steam power was orisins.

54 Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LINCOLNSHIRE 1 CLARK, Ronald H, Steam Engine Builders of Lincolnshire, (SLHA, 1998) 2 DOLMAN, Peter, Lincolnshire Windmills: Contemporary Suwey (Lincolnshire CC, 1986) 3 HADFIELD, Charles, The Canals of the (David and Charles, 1970) 4 JAGER, David, Windmills of Lincolnshire Surtiving into the 2l't Century (, 2007) 5 LELEUX, Robin, A Regional History^ of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 9: The East Midlands (David & Charles,1984) 6 SQUIRES, S E, The Lost Railwal's of Lincolnshire (Castlemead, 1988) 7 WRIGHT, Neil R., Lincolnshire Towns and Industry 1700-1914, ( Committee,1982) 8 WRIGHT, Neil R. (editor), 2004. Lincolnshire's Industrial Heritage - A Guide (SLHA, 2004)

Tour A LINCOLN 9 BIRCH, Neville C, The Waterways and Railways of Lincoln and the Lower Witham (Lincolnshire Local History Society,1968). 10 HILL, Sir Francis, Victorian Lincoln ( University Press, 1974) 1l LANE,MichaelR,TheStoryof theWellingtonFoundry-,Lincoln (UnicornPress, 1997) 12 LINCOLN ENGINEERING SOCIETY,Lincoln Engineering Socierj 1923-1973 Jubilee Exhibition (Lincolnshire Association, 1973) 13 MILLS, D R & WHEELER, R C (Eds), Historic Town Plans of Lincoln, 1610-1920 (, 2004) 14 NEWMAN, Bernard, One Hundred Years of Good Company (Ruston & Hornsby Ltd, 1951) 15 ROBINSON,Peter,Lincoln'sExcayators-TheRustonYearsl8T5-1930(RoundoakPublishing,2003) l6 ROBINSON, Peter, Lincoln's Excavators The Ruston-Buct-rus Years 1930- 1945 (Roundoak Publishing,2006) 17 RUDDOCK, J G and PEARSON, R E, The RaiLway History of Lincoln (J G Ruddock &Partners,I974) WRIGHT, Lincolnshire Towns and Industry $ee 7 above) l8 YEATES-LANGLEY. Ann. Lincoln: A Pictorial History @hillimore &CoLtd,1997)

Tour B DOGDYKE & WOODHALL SPA 19 BAILEY, Richard, In the Middle of Nowhere: The History of RAF Metheringham (Tucann, 2003)

20 CLARKE , J N, The Horncastle and Tattershall CanaL, (The Oakwood Press, 1990) 2l HILLS, Richard L, The Drainage of the Fens (Landmark Publishing, 2003) 22 HINDE, K S G, Fenland Pumping Engines (Landmark Publishing, 2006) 23 LUDLAM,AJ, Horncastle and WoodhalL Junction RaiLway (The Oakwood Press, 1986). 24 SQUIRES, S E, Lincolnshire Potato RaiLways (Oakwood Press, 2005) 25 THOMSON. A R, Spas that Heal (Adam and Charles Black, 1978)

Tour C GAINSBOROUGH 26 BECKWITH, Ian S, 'The River Trade of Gainsborough: 1500-1850' in Lincolnshire History- and Archaeology, Volume 2 (1961\ 27 BECKWITH, Ian S,The Making of Modern Gainsborough (Gainsborough UDC, 1968) 28 BECKWITH, Ian S, The History of Transport in Gainsboroagh (Gainsborough UDC, 197 1)

55 Bibliography

29 BECKWITH, Ian S, The Book of Gainsborough (Barractda, 1988) 30 ENGLISH, J S, Gainsborough's Industrial History (The Author, 1981) 31 LANE, Michael R, The Story of the Bitannia lron Works: William Marshall Sons & Co, (Quiller Press, 1993) 32 STONE, Richard, The River Trent: A History Ghillimore, 2005) 33 TAYLOR, Mike, The River Trent Navigarlon (Tempus, 2000)

TouT D MUSEUM OF LINCOLNSHIRE LIFE BIRCH, The Waterways and Railways of Lincoln (see 9 above) CLARK, Steam Engine Builders of Lincolnshire (see I above) LANE, Britannia Iron Works, (see 31 above) LANE, Wellington Foundry, (see 11 above)

LINCOLN ENGINEERING SOCIETY, Jubilee Exhibition (see 12 above) NEWMAN, BERNARD, One Hundred Years of Good Company (see 14 above) 34 REDMORE, Ken (editor), Ploughs, Chaff Cutters and Steam Engines (SLHA, 2007)

ROBINSON , Lincoln's Excavators - The Ruston Years (see 15 above) ROBINSON, Lincoln's Excavators - The Ruston-Bucyrus Years (see 16 above) RUDDOCK and PEARSON , The Railway History of Lincoln (see 17 above) WRIGHT, Lincolnshire Towns and Industry gee 7 above)

TouTE GRIMSBY&IMMINGHAM 35 CHAPMAN, Peter, Grimsby: The Story of the World's Greatest Fishing Port (Breedon Books, 2007) 36 DOWLING, Alan, Grimsby: Making the Town 1800-1914 (Phillimore, 2007) LELEUX, A Regional History of the Railways (see 5 above) 37 LUDLAM, A J, Railways to New Holland and the Humber Ferrles (The Oakwood Press, 1996) 38 MUMMERY, Brian & BUTLER,Ian,Immingham and the Great Central Legacy, (Tempus, 1999) 39 TAILBY, AR, The Story of a Village: Immingham (Immingham Parish Councll, l97O) 40 WRIGHT, Neil R, 'Great Grimsby - A Town of Fishermen' in Lincolnshire History and ArchaeologyYol.2l,6T- 70, (198s) WRIGHT, Lincolnshire Towns and Industry (see 7 above)

Tour F SLEAFORD & SUTTON BRIDGE 41 CLARK, M, 'The Great Northern Railway and Sutton Bridge Dock' in Great Northern News vols.132, I33,I34, (2003 &2004) 42 PAGE, Christopher, Sleaford: An Industrial History (SLHA, 1974) 43 PAWLEY, Simon, Sleaford and the Slea (G.M. Griffin, 1990) 44 ROBINSON, FRANK W. and BRUCE, A, A History of Long Sutton and Distict (Long Sutton and District Civic Trust, 1981) 45 WORSENCROFT, Ken, Bygone Sleaford (Bygone Grantham, 1978) WRIGHT, Lincolnshire Towns and Industry (see 7 above) 46 WRIGHT, Neil R and JACKSON, Beryl, Sutton Bridge - An Industrial History (SLHA, 2009) 47 WROTTESLEY, A J , The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (David & Charles, 1970)

Tour G NEW BOLINGBROKE & BOSTON

48 HANSON, Martin and WATERFIELD, James , Boston Windmills (The authors) HILLS, The Drainage of the Fens (see 21 above)

56 Bibliography

JAGER, Windmills of Lincolnshire (see 4 above) 49 LEWIS, M J T and WRIGHT, N R, Bosron as a Port (Lincolnshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 1973) 50 WffiELER, William Henry, A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (Paul Watkins, 1990 reprint) 51 WFIEELER,RC (Ed),Mapsof theWithamFensfromrhe l3'h to l9'h Century(LincolnRecordSociety,2008) WRIGHT, Lincolnshire Towns and Industry (see 7 above) 52 WRIGHT, Neil R, The Railways of Boston (Richard Kay, 1998) 53 WRIGHT, Neil R, Boston: A History and Celebration (The Francis Frith Collection, 2005)

Tour H LOUTH. THE WOLDS & THE MARSH 54 BEASTALL, T W, Agricultural Revolution in Lincolnshire. (History of Lincolnshire Committee,1918) 55 DOW, George, The Alfurd and SuttonTramway, (Oakwood Press, 1984) 56 GLIRNHAM, Richard, A History of Louth (Phillimore, 2007) 57 LUDLAM, AJ, Louth, Mablethorpe andWilloughby Loop Line (The Oakwood Press, 1987) 58 NOTT, Hugh, Papermaking in Lincolnshire (SLHA, 2008) 59 OTTER, Patrick, 1996, Lincolnshire Airfields in the Second World War (Countryside Books, 1996) 60 RAWDING, Charles K, The Lincolnshire Wolds in the Nineteenth Century (History of Lincolnshire Committee, 2001) 61 ROBINSON, D N and C STURMAN, C, William Brown and the Louth Panarama (Lou;lh Naturalists', Antiquarian & Literary Society, 2001) 62 SIZER Stuart M and CLARK, Josephine, People and Boats, ( Trust, 2006)

Tour J RAF STATIONS 63 BLAKE, R, HODGSON, M and TAYLOR, W, The Airfields of Lincolnshire since 1912 (Midland Counties Publications, 1984) 64 GREEN, P, HODGSON, M and TAYLOR, W, Wings Over Lincolnshire (Mrdland Publishing Ltd,1994) 65 HALPENNY, Bruce Barrymore, Action Stations: Military Aiffields of Lincolnshire and the East Midlands (Patrick Stephens, 1991) 66 HANCOCK, T N, Bomber County: A History of the RAF in Lincolnshire (Midland Publishing Lrd,2004) 67 OSBORNE,M,20th Century Defences in Britain: Lincolnshire (Brassey's, 1997) OTTER, Patrick, Lincolnshire Aiffields, (see 59 above) 68 WALLS, J and PARKER, C, Aircraft Made in Lincoln (SLIIA, 2000)

TouT K SPALDING & DEEPING FEN 69 EVERITT, Norman and ELSDEN, Michael J, Aspects of Spalding, 1790 - 1930, (Chameleon International, 1986) HILLS, The Drainage of the Fens (see 21 above) JAGER, Windmills of Lincolnshire (see 4 above)) WHEELER, A History of the Fens, (see 50 above) 70 WRIGHT, Neil R, Spalding - An Industrial History (Lincolnshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 1973) 7l WRIGHT,NeiIR, JohnGrundyof Spalding,Engineer, 1719-1783-HisLifuandTimes (LincolnshireCC, 1983)

Tour L NEW HOLLAND & BARTON 72 BOOTH, ADRIAN, 'William Blyth's Tileries' ir Railway Bylines April-May ppll}-l15 (1998). 73 BRYANT, Geoffrey F and LAND, Nigel D, Bricks, Tiles and Bicycles in Barton before 1900 (Barton WEA, 2007) 74 CLAPSON, Rodney, Barton and the River Humber 1086-1900 (Barton WEA, 2005) 75 FENTON,Will, Ropeworks: A Brief History of Hall's Barton Ropery (Fathom Press, 2007)

J/ Bibliography

76 HOLLAND, John and Valerie, Images of England: Barton-upon-Humber (Tempus Publishing, 1999)

JAGER, Windmills of Lincolnshire (see 4 above.) 77 LUDLAM, AJ, Railways to New Holland and the Humber Ferries (The Oakwood Press, 1996). 78 WADDINGTON, Herbert S, 'New Holland Pier' in Lincolnshire History and ArchaeoLogyYol. l'7,51-56 (1982)

Tour M SCUNTHORPE & ISLE OF AXHOLME 79 ARMSTRONG, M. Elizabeth, An Industrial Island: A History of Scunthorpe (Scunthorpe Museum, 1981) 80 CREED, Rupert and COULT, Averil, Steeltown (Hutton Press, 1990) 81 DUDLEY, Harold E, Village Days: Scunthorpe (Scunthorpe Museum, Revised Edition 1973) 82 ELLA, Cohn, The Isle of Axholme: A Guide to the District and its Villages (The Author, 2007) 83 HOLM, Stlart,The Heavens Reflect Our Lobours (Scunthorpe Museum, 1974) 84 HUMBERSIDE ARCHAEOLOGY UNIT, The Isle of Axholme: Man and the Lttndscape (Humberside C C, 1990) 85 KNELL, Simon J, The Natural History of the Frodingham lronstone (Scunthorpe Museum, 1988) 86 WALSHAW,cRandBEHRENDT,CAJ,TheHistoryofAppleby-Frodingham(Appleby-FrodinghamSteelCo., 19s0)

Figure 139: Keadby Bridge, near Scunthorpe

58